Revenge-Seeking Renegade (A Jumpchain renegade story, Currently in DC comics)

[boyboy180]

As it turns out, artificial blood was hard. The specific problem Joshua was having trouble with were blood groups. They'd only recently been figured. Well, "Recently," A bit less than twenty years ago from the perspective of this world. The person who'd discovered them in this world hadn't even been awarded a nobel prize yet.

So the information on it was lacking and it used a lot of terms above Joshua's education level. While he wanted to help people, medically he only knew about as much as the average person in 2023.

From what he understood though, each blood type displayed different antigens. If the blood type was different, the recipient of the blood would have a reaction as if the new blood was a pathogen. Seeing as a person receiving blood would require that person to need blood, that was likely to ensure whatever problems they already had would kill them.

So, Joshua would need to specifically create artificial O-type blood. There was another problem though. Joshua had heard of "negative" blood type. Something about "O negative" blood. The problem was he had no idea what it was and neither did any of the medical manuals he could find. Apparently whatever it was just hadn't been discovered yet. This was a problem. Whatever the positive/negative part of blood type was could be crucial and he didn't know where to start on it.

Sure, he could synthesise fake blood. He even had done that for some of his own blood as a test, but he didn't know which parts of the blood mattered for the purpose of those special blood groups. Plus, he didn't even know his own blood type so that wasn't even very helpful. All the experiment proved was that he could create substitute blood using alchemy. The recipe took some time to get right but pure water, nitric acid, purified coal and iron were all used to some degree.

Over lunch one day, he discussed his research with his friends. They were curious why he was working on alchemy when he was already a mage but understood when he told them he was looking for a less violent way to fight.

He had told them he was a pacifist. Mary had laughed but she'd accepted it since he was coming to the battlefield anyway.

John suggested that Joshua could work on something else though, while blood was important, he wouldn't have the ability to just take a blood sample from a wounded soldier to create more of their blood quickly. Those types of blood tests took time that a wounded soldier wouldn't have.

No, the kind of alchemy that would help most was more about quickly sealing wounds in sterile ways. Recently a pair of chemists had created an antiseptic solution that could be used to clean battlefield wounds.

Water, Sodium hypochlorite and Boric acid were combined at the right percentages and the result was a useful liquid used to keep wounds clean as they healed.

Why not use penicillin? It hadn't been invented yet, and seeing as its invention was an accident, it might never be invented in this world.

Alchemy could be used to create that solution quickly. If Joshua created some equipment with the circle already on it, all he'd need to do would be dump in the correct ingredients as he was helping the medics.

Joshua devoted time into looking into that project. By this time the teachers had noticed him looking in to alchemy and they let him take some tests to see if he qualified for the alchemy classes in his second month.

While his knowledge of chemistry was still lacking in some areas, he passed the alchemy tests with flying colours. The teachers congratulated him on how fast he must have picked it up but it was all rote memorisation for Joshua. Each circle offered had been in a book he'd read from the library and when asked to draw his own circle in the test to create a specific reaction, he'd just drawn a perfect circle from memory.

It had gotten him into the more advanced section of the library at least. From there he continued researching the medical topics he was interested in. It should be forgotten that he was also doing his work on magic at the same time. The crossover of the two disciplines had significant overlap though.

Now, four weeks into his training, the lessons turned over to cover the war with greater detail. They were taught to use flight-based spell engines, how to enchant their ammo with destructive spells and how to use the advanced radio equipment to keep in contact with their base.

On the alchemy side of thing, each alchemist began specialising. Most common was figuring out how to weaponise the world itself. Just like the mage training, this took out outside on a muddy field. For both sides of his training, the reason was the same. They wanted to see what students could do out in the field.

As mages, Joshua flew alongside his classmates on a rainy and stormy morning. They had just been violently woken up and forced to fly first thing. The rain bit into Joshua as he looked for the target he'd been given down his rifle.

Holding it felt wrong to him. He didn't want to shoot people after all. That might kill them. A stupid statement but it was still a worry for him. Regardless, he sighted his target and held up the rifle.

The sound of the magic-enhanced gunshot was loud and he quickly tried to see through the darkness and rain to see his target. Had he missed?

…Yes.

With a sigh, he raised his rifle again.

The next day he was out in the same field, learning how to use alchemy to repair trenches. It was how wars were fought, even if historians sometimes point out just how many lives were lost because of the trenches that would have lived if something else had been used.

No matter, he had work to do. As the class had been taught, he pulled out his pocket knife and quickly drew a set of circles into the mud. Then he put both hands next to the circle and let it crackle with the power of the earth.

The trench's walls were fortified with mud. Water dried up as it became steam and the soft mud of the wall hardened into mud brick. He could probably put this circle on a tool of some sort to make this easier. Hmm. A hammer's head was too small. Maybe he'd just carve the circle into a large plank of wood and put it into the wall of the trench? That might work.

Joshua still spent time in the library and its deeper section. There it had more dangerous alchemic notes. Ways to turn normal materials into poisons or other hazardous weapons. Alchemic circles to turn something into an explosive or simple treatise on how alchemy could just be stopped at the deconstruction phase to destroy something. You still needed a detailed-enough circle to affect the target, but it didn't matter how tough a vehicle's armour was if one use of this circle could shatter it to pieces.

None of that really suited Joshua though. What did was a scroll he found near the back. It was written in a language he didn't know. The symbols probably meant it was Chinese but he didn't know any Chinese.

Was this a book on Alkahestry?

It took him some time but he'd found a book that talked about the scroll. Apparently the writer had been trying to figure out how to perform ranged alchemy - that is, reproducing the Alkahestry technique where you could draw a circle "here" to perform alchemy "there."

And if one part of Alkahestry was here, maybe there were healing techniques in the scroll too. Or one of the other Chinese scrolls he found in the library. While he couldn't read them, he memorised them and any circles he saw in diagram form in them. He'd need to do a lot of testing before he figured it out.

On the plus side, he'd figured out a quick and effective way of making that Antiseptic solution his friends had mentioned. He'd need to pick how he wanted to create an item with the circle, he'd need to make it out of a material that wouldn't react to the high PH levels of the liquid.

Copper maybe? But copper corrodes, it wouldn't work. The next best metals would probably be gold or silver but he really didn't have the budget for that. Alchemy involving liquids was always tricky.

As he worked, he and his friends were also preparing for their final tests. They were only a fortnight away at this point. These would be less scientific than the previous tests, but more a test to see if they'd internalised all the skills they'd need to fight.

There were lessons on self defence, lessons on shooting and those sorts of things too, they just hadn't been mentioned in the narration yet. Joshua did okay with most of them. When it got to knife-fighting, Joshua was actually quite good at it. It made sense in a way, he'd used those skills to fight off monsters and a false god before.

He still lost to the instructor though, the skills needed to fight a monster were quite different to what were needed to defeat a skilled human target. Even so, he was still the top of that class.

It wasn't long now.

During the last week, Joshua worked through the Alkahestry texts. While he had memorised them, he wouldn't be allowed to take them with him and he wanted to be sure he knew as much from them as possible.

From the translation documents about them, he learned that the ranged Alkahestry trick didn't seem to work with alchemy, even when performed perfectly. He tried to replicate it himself and got the same result.

It was like… how could it be explained? If you dropped a leaf in a river, the leaf would drift downstream. If you dropped it in a lake, it would stay still. In this case, the place where you'd drop the leaf in would be the circle you drew and the place the leaf ended up would be where the alchemy took effect.

In Alkahestry, you could choose how the "water" should flow somehow where in Alchemy the water was still. The leaf wouldn't really move from the circle outside of special situations. Alchemy could stretch from its point of origin, but it was still connected to it.

Late one night, two days before the final tests, he finally got it to click. He knew how to do it. More than that, this answered even how Alkahestry healed.

Describing it was too hard for him to want to attempt it now. However the result of his realisation made one thing clear. He wasn't just an Alchemist anymore. He was also an Alkahestist… or however you'd write that.

Spoiler: Author Notes

A little short, but there wasn't much more to go into before the final tests and the graduation from magic boot camp.
In Jumpchain terms, Joshua has taken the Alchemy perk twice. Once for Alchemy knowledge and once for Alkahestry. That means he can use both as required. He'll be showing off more of that in the next chapter.

 

[boyboy180]

The final exams began early in the morning.

The class took to the sky in the light of the rising sun. All were wearing and holding the testing equipment.

In this case, said equipment was a warm coat they'd been taught how to make bulletproof, a backpack radio transceiver attached to a headset they were wearing, a pair of boots used to make the flight spells easier to control and their rifle which was loaded with blanks.

They'd done training like this before.

Over the radio crackled the voice of their tutor.

"Normal dogfighting rules. Additionally you're fighting over 'enemy territory' meaning we'll be shooting at you from below."

Joshua listened as more instructions came. As he listened, he fingered the spell engine dangling at his neck. The flight spell had made it floaty so it was like a bubble he could move around.

As the teacher began to count down, Joshua focused. Previous dogfights had been against other students, this time though they were against their teachers. It'd need to take a lot of focus.

As the bell chimed the start of the exam, Joshua kicked the flight spell up a notch and shot upward along with a good few other students. Staying too low would make the anti-mage sharpshooter's lives more difficult.

He heard the sharp cracks of the blanks firing as he slowed, stopping at one thousand feet. For the purpose of these tests, any higher than this wasn't allowed. It did mean that the sharpshooters on the ground had a better chance to hit them though.

He saw one of the teachers flying towards him and he dived away from them. He needed more manoeuvrability options than he could get at the ceiling of the battle area. He pulled his legs in, throwing himself into a spin to dodge the teacher's rifle. They hadn't fired yet but this would throw off their aim.

Righting himself, Joshua shot under the teacher and spun round, pointing his rifle. The teacher was faster though and spun away from his shot as he pulled the trigger.

Joshua prayed that he'd never have to fight like this on a battlefield. This was a matter of life and death in seconds. Or it would be if it was real.

He joined John who was also dodging around as the teacher he'd focused on fired at him in a snap shot. The two of them split up to flank the teacher. That said, flanking was significantly harder in three dimensions. The teacher shot up to the metaphorical roof as Joshua and John tried to pincer them and fired shots down at the two of them. Joshua and John both spun away, the former firing off a quick shot with his rifle in an attempt to hit the teacher. The shot went wide though.

The battle continued for a few minutes, Joshua taking hits from the blanks a few times during the chaotic maelstrom, and then it finally came to an end.

Everyone descended back towards the ground to hear the thoughts of the teachers. Had they all passed?

The question was basically one of "Would they get themselves killed on the battlefield without accomplishing anything?" If they wouldn't then their mage training was done.

The lead teacher gave a nod. They'd passed. The class celebrated but Joshua's hard work wasn't over for the day.

As everyone rested and let themselves forget they'd be getting shipped over to the mainland come tomorrow, Joshua studied.

He apologised to his friends that he couldn't join them at lunch. He had to perfect his formula that he'd figured out last night. After lunch the Alchemic tests would be performed after all.

When the appointed hour came, he joined the rest of the alchemists who had been researching in the academy for their certifications.

The system paralleled the state alchemist system. In return for a large stipend, alchemists would have their achievements recorded and agree to aid the military and to never forge gold or try to create humans. The "aid the military" thing was what was coming up now with the war on.

The applicants were invited in one by one as the principal of the academy along with some alchemic experts would review each of the prospective certified alchemist's research.

Names were called until Joshua finally entered.

"Name?" an official asked from the side of the room.

"Joshua, no last name."

The principal raised an eyebrow at that but didn't say anything as one of the officials asked about his research.

Joshua nodded "I have been researching Alkahestry and how its principles could be used with Alchemy."

Quiet voices filled the room at that. The principal leaned forwards, interest in his voice as he prompted.

"And?"

"I have been able to replicate healing and ranged transmutation." Joshua explained simply "Though I've perfected neither."

Voices became louder. The fact that he'd made the claim in this context at all served to verify it to some level. If he'd had an incomplete thesis, he wouldn't have brought it up.

Joshua lifted a normal knife.

"I wish to demonstrate the ability to heal. I will test it on myself, but may I ask someone to get bandages?"

As they fetched medical supplies, Joshua drew his circle on his left palm. He used a pen to write to ensure it wouldn't come off easily. The circle was basically a more detailed pentagram. Once it had dried he took the knife and paused.

He took a breath and turned his unmarked hand around and cut along the knuckle of his right hand's pinky. He grit his teeth at the pain and held the wound up as blood began to drip. Someone stood to the side, ready with bandages should something go wrong.

Joshua placed his marked palm over the wound and focused and alchemic lightning shot out. He felt warmth pound through his right hand. That was the pulse of his life.

Again, it was a little hard to explain how Alkahestry worked. If asked to make an attempt to explain, Joshua would say it was speeding up his body's rate of healing. All of the processes the body went through to heal were occurring quickly and thanks to the alchemy, any cell replication was done without any risk of copy errors. That was the core of what Alkahestry called the elixir of life. The ability to heal without DNA suffering any degradation due to ageing and if performed properly (Which Joshua hadn't figured out the method to yet) it could even be used to repair existing damage.

Pulling his hands apart, Joshua revealed that the wound was gone. All that was left was a small mark.

The room descended into chaos. He was asked for his research notes which he freely gave, he'd memorised them anyway. He'd only barely begun his work combining the two arts so giving them his initial work wouldn't cause that much of a problem.

He was then asked to leave while they continued to debate but Joshua wasn't worried. He was now confident in being able to pass. All he needed to do was wait for the confirmation.

When he returned to the hall he was able to celebrate with his friends.

They ate good fish and chips and talked about the war. Joshua sat with them, smiling sadly. World war one killed so many people in his world. How many had it already killed in this world? Would it even end when it had in his world?

How many of his friends would die in the next few months?

Joshua had been planning to leave soon. This world, he meant. It might be okay if he left now, the wall of this world might have healed enough that it was safe. But now he'd let himself become attached to this world. No, not the world, to the people.

He couldn't leave them to die. He'd be the medic they needed.

And so against his better judgement, he was going to be going to war.

He picked up a plate of fish and chips and joined the others in conversation. He made the promise to them directly.

"Since I've done well in my alchemic studies, I might be allowed to be a proper combat medic. If I do, I swear I won't let any of you die on my watch."

William nodded to that, raising a glass (of water) into the air "To our lives and good health!"

"To our lives and good health!" all of them toasted.

After eating, Joshua found a newspaper. It was dated today, the 29th of June 19, 1918. The German offensive was still ongoing and the American forces were still coming in. It was likely that Joshua would get to be in the last few battles of the war.

As the afternoon dragged into evening, people continued to party but Joshua slipped away. He still had some more of the library to memorise.

His memorisation abilities had come as a little surprising when he'd first found them, but it seemed to just be this world's version of how blue magic had worked back in final fantasy. Maybe it would just bend to whatever the magic system of the world was. When Joshua finally made it to Harry Potter, maybe he'd be able to work out the principles upon which magic was based!

Maybe. Who knows?

As it turned out, Joshua had been a little wrong about the timeline. They weren't setting off the day after exams, but on the Monday after. They had a full weekend to relax. They'd set off on the first of July.

Before then though, Joshua was called the the principal's office. There he received his new title. He was to be known as the "Life Pulse Alchemist" for his work in combining Alkahestry healing with Alchemy.

And yes, he would be allowed to join the medics in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He didn't have the training to be a full medical officer though, instead he'd simply remain a mage attached to the battalion.

As he accepted his posting, something bubbled up in his memory. He left the principal's office when he was dismissed and he went to a chair in the library and steepled his fingers.

Spanish flu was on the way. He hadn't thought about it until now. In theory, he should be immune, right? He had his vaccinations, those were years ago at this point though. Would they still work? And would they work against whatever strain of influenza this world created, if it did create it.

Why had this all come to mind? Simply because he was thinking about the position he'd take. It would be his job to help treat the infected if the flu did hit as it did in his world. He didn't remember how many died in the first world war or how many died to spanish flu but he knew that the first number was at least half of the second number.

If he wanted to save lives, he needed to help with vaccination projects if he could. If stopped quickly enough, it might be enough to prevent disaster.

But that was a matter for the him of a few months from now. Soon he'd be going to war. His primary position would be as a mage afterall, even if he did have the qualifications to assist the medics. Hopefully that would ensure he didn't get the dangerous jobs at least.

Graduation day came and the soldiers travelled to the port in buses. From the buses they were transferred to ships. They met up with other soldiers for the first time and it was clear to see the differences in training.

The soldiers were strong and battle-ready. They'd had eight weeks of strict training while the mages had been through eight weeks of education.

Joshua stayed away from the soldiers when he could. They'd be the ones who'd kill. It would just be his job to ensure they didn't die doing it.

And so the boat set off for France. Joshua looked back towards England as they sailed away.

Something felt special about that moment. Back in his homeworld he'd travelled to France many times before but in this world… Well, he wasn't sure he'd ever go back to England.

He'd either die, or cut himself a new gateway in a few weeks. Maybe something else. Either way, he was saying goodbye to England in the way he never really got the chance to in his homeworld.

He stared out at the disappearing landmass before turning towards mainland europe and the battles to come.

Spoiler: Author Notes

And here's the end of his training. If I haven't mentioned it so far, this arc will be 15 parts long so we're now a third through this arc. What has everyone thought of the training? Did it feel right or completely wrong?

 

[LollipoPReapeR]

I like the first introductory chapter, but the subsequent Pokémon chapters felt a bit… aimless? I've read another two chapters after that but its not really making me want to stick around. Like in a normal Jumpchain, protag goes in with some sort of goal/plan.
Here, we don't really know why he's going on a Pokémon journey and collecting badges? Catching up to Green doesn't really feel like 'his' goal, more something he came up with to fool Oak. How does this help with his ultimate goal? Has any time at all been taken to get over the fact that his world has been enslaved and he has been ripped away from everything he knows? How does he know how to gain power etc? MC should have no idea how the CP mechanism here works as the guardian just gave him a knife and died without giving him any real knowledge.

Another thing, which is a common issue with a lot of Jumpchains, is pacing. Feels like too much is being summarised, MC is doing things, but I can't really bring myself to care about any of it. A Pokémon section without trying to bond with your sapient Pokémon feels off as well tbh. And that's not including how Oak just gave a random man a Pokémon and an ID after a quick verbal promise… Felt a bit unrealistic. Now I haven't played this particular game, but if MC is jumping into the world, you have to treat everyone there as real people, not NPCs.

 

[boyboy180]

I like the first introductory chapter, but the subsequent Pokémon chapters felt a bit… aimless? I've read another two chapters after that but its not really making me want to stick around. Like in a normal Jumpchain, protag goes in with some sort of goal/plan.
Here, we don't really know why he's going on a Pokémon journey and collecting badges? Catching up to Green doesn't really feel like 'his' goal, more something he came up with to fool Oak. How does this help with his ultimate goal? Has any time at all been taken to get over the fact that his world has been enslaved and he has been ripped away from everything he knows? How does he know how to gain power etc? MC should have no idea how the CP mechanism here works as the guardian just gave him a knife and died without giving him any real knowledge.

Another thing, which is a common issue with a lot of Jumpchains, is pacing. Feels like too much is being summarised, MC is doing things, but I can't really bring myself to care about any of it. A Pokémon section without trying to bond with your sapient Pokémon feels off as well tbh.

Click to shrink...

The pacing problem is more to do with the (Off-screen) CP things. I, as the writer, need a set amount of content per world so I'm generally making up reasons that Joshua doesn't just leave if he gets a world he didn't want. While later worlds have better reasons, Pokemon just has the Doylist reason of "I need to get to the end of this Jump so I can have someone give some info to Joshua."

It didn't need to be Pokemon at all, but that was what I rolled. Honestly, another world probably would have been better as an introduction looking back on it.

And that's not including how Oak just gave a random man a Pokémon and an ID after a quick verbal promise… Felt a bit unrealistic. Now I haven't played this particular game, but if MC is jumping into the world, you have to treat everyone there as real people, not NPCs.

Click to shrink...

In that case, it was the knife.
AKA: by Jump-Fiat, you get a Pokemon. What you saw happen there was the Fiat get a Pokemon for Joshua.
The reason that Joshua barely gets any items is more that making acquiring the CP-bought items natural is difficult

Edit: I could fix a lot with a small rewrite. Make vague points more obvious like the thing with Prof Oak and the reason Joshua goes on the Pokemon Journey (Hoping to find a legendary to help him, though he forgets about that quickly which could also be fixed in a rewrite)
Of course, a rewrite would take a bit... better sooner than later though. I'll see about looking into it this week.
If I simplify the problem to just a few things it would probably be easier.

"Why does Joshua look for the thief?" because Oak asked him to in repayment of helping him with the Pokemon and ID.
"Why did Oak do that?" Fiat-backing
"Why did Joshua want a Pokemon at all?" He wanted to find a lengendary that could help free his world, to do that he needed to go on an adventure.

Okay, are there any other questionable points I could make more clear in a rewrite?

 

[boyboy180]

I've now done minor rewrites on the first two Pokemon chapters. I can't really tell if it's clear enough at this point though as I know everything that will happen and I'm not a person coming to the story for the first time.

 

[boyboy180]

Once disembarking in France, Joshua and the other mages and alchemists needed to quickly make their way to the port's train station. There, they waited for a quarter of an hour for the train that would take them to the battle lines.

Joshua and his friends sat together, talking quietly between themselves. They only had a limited time together now. Joshua was going to be disembarking first as he needed to report into the medical corp at the back lines first. In the worst case, this may be his last time seeing them.

He… didn't think it would be that bad though. They were mages after all, the military wouldn't waste them carelessly.

The reasoning was a bit warped. Unlike the common forces, mages couldn't be wasted.

The four of them laughed together, the last eight weeks having formed strong friendships between them. The same was true for many others throughout the carriages

Joshua glanced out the window, smiling at a joke William had told as he thought about something.

He'd heard something about part of an army's training being about giving their soldiers a reason to kill. Sure, there were some people that could kill easily. Just give a man a gun and he could kill. America proved that easily. Most people would be reluctant though.

Those people could kill too, in theory. If not to save themselves then to save their friends.

"So," Joshua asked himself silently "Would I kill someone if that was the only way to save the three here with me?"

…

His mind still said the same.

"Unless there is no other option, I can't kill."

He understood that if killing someone was the only option that could allow him to save them, he could kill. But only if it was really the only option. He could shoot to wound easily enough.

Say someone was pointing their rifle at one of his friends who had been hurt in some way and was missing their protective spells. In that case, a shot to the arm steadying the rifle or a carefully placed one on the shooting arm… those would allow him to save his friend.

He was also the kind of person who'd want to patch up the enemy after the fact too.

Did this make him… He snorted. The way he'd been going to end that thought was "A bad friend." But that sounded too childish for the subject matter. This was about life and death.

So what was the answer. Did he really just not care enough about them?

"Well." His darker thoughts made note "I have only known them for eight weeks. They're acquaintances at best. Eating and training alongside someone would create bonds but eight weeks was too short to matter, right?"

His internal narration was getting overly dour and Mary dragged him out of the thoughts by asking what he'd do when the war was over.

That was the rumour after all. The rumour that had been going on for the last few years.

"The war will be over by Christmas."

Joshua thought about how to answer her question for a moment before shrugging.

"I'll head back to the farm again I think." He lied.

He'd told them about the farm before and they nodded. John spoke up though.

"You're not going to do any philanthropy?" He asked "I mean, even if we can't use our Spell Engines in the post-war world, you'll still have your alchemy. The world's been devastated by this war and it could use a lot of help, especially that of a person like you who dislikes this kind of bloodshed."

He wasn't really wrong. Even so, this wasn't Joshua's world. And his staying here couldn't help his home at all.

His philanthropy would be performed on other worlds. Once he found a bag of holding or something like that, he could go around and use what little powers he'd gained to recruit allies to help put his world to right again.

John was still waiting for an answer though. Joshua shrugged "I'll find something to do. Who knows? Maybe farm work will be less necessary after the war and I could go and find something better to do."

They all continued to talk for a while longer. Finally though the time was coming. The stop for the rear lines.

Joshua stood.

"Well." He nodded to his friends "Thank you all. I hope to see you again at some point."

William nodded "Let's all promise to meet up, after the war is over if we don't get the chance sooner."

"Yeah." Mary nodded. John agreed in his own way too.

With that, Joshua departed from them. He walked to the train's doors and leaned against the train car's wall as he waited for his stop.

The steam whistle blew and the train began to slow. The brakes squealed softly and the train drew to a stop at the station.

Jumping onto the platform, Joshua was followed out by a crowd of other people for the rear line. Not mages or alchemists, there were other people like medics and people to handle logistics too. Following the former group, Joshua made his way to the medical center. It was a hospital that had been entirely dedicated to healing the war's wounded.

Joshua signed in. The Life Pulse Alchemist was ready for duty. The hospital staff were unsure of him but they allowed him to help. There were lots of wounded to treat after all.

Alkahestry's form of healing wasn't that useful when it came to limbs already amputated but for things like infections it was perfect. Joshua obtained a set of medical gloves and drew (With a clean marker) his normal alkahestry circle on the palm.

By increasing the power of the body's own immune system, it could find a method to fight off an infection twice as quickly. When that wasn't enough, he could combine it with his alchemic circle to create that antiseptic he'd learned about at the academy.

It wasn't a great method. The requirement for clean work meant that the gloves needed to be discarded between each patient. He'd create a more effective tool for this later Before that point though, he used Alchemy to break down the gloves to create plastic sheeting that he'd store for later use.

He also worked with the other medical staff. As he wasn't medically trained though, he wasn't allowed to assist with anything serious due to the chance something could go wrong. He was fully able to care for patients after surgery though. Alkahestry could help the body recover from the ordeal faster after all.

Joshua stayed at the hospital for five days before being ordered to the front. He was A Mage Alchemist and that meant he had to fight.

Gritting his teeth, Joshua took the train to the front. Compared to the ride from the French port, this train ride was much more tense.

He heard the firing of the Artillery guns before the train even stopped.

Joshua was dropped off at the very rear-most point of the battle line. This was the supply lines and where the field hospitals were located. It was also where the ammo dump was located, Joshua could see the crates of ammunition stacked up against one of the train station's walls. It looked to be ready to transport somewhere safer.

A runner came to meet Joshua, he was to report to the commander of this stretch of trenches. The man's command post was here in the back lines for safety.

A particularly cynical part of Joshua's mind noted that the man wouldn't be in any danger as he ordered men to their deaths. He shook that thought away as he walked though. There were rational reasons for a leader to lead from the back. Personal safety was only one element of it. If lines of command broke down because he was killed, it could spell a disaster.

He approached the command post and gave his information so they'd let him through. There he saw his current commander for the first time.

What was the old saying? Something about the old leading and the young dying? Joshua couldn't remember but this man seemed to exemplify it. The old man was sucking on a cigar with a glass of some alcohol sitting on his desk. He looked to be at least sixty as he glowered.

"So, you're the Life Pulse Alchemist, are you?"

Even his voice wasn't pleasant. It was probably the fault of his cigars.

"Yes sir."

"Well," the man tapped his cigar on an ashtray "Your skills as a mage are more useful to me than your skills as an Alchemist. I have orders for you. You'll be advancing with the mage company, tanks and infantry to the town of Ham."

"To do what exactly sir?" Joshua asked.

The man snorted "What else? Take it back from those bloody germans. Their demons helped take it earlier this year and now we're going to take it back with a quick attack."

…Did he know? It was probably best to bring it up now.

"Sir-"

No, better not actually. This man felt overly hostile.

Joshua wouldn't shoot to kill, that didn't mean he wasn't able to fight at all.

"Well?" The man said "Out with it!"

"It was nothing." Joshua stated simply

"Then get out!" The man shouted "And go meet up with your fellow mages."

Joshua left the man's office.

Well. That happened. He'd need to ask where the other mages were based. It was down in the trenches apparently, They were situated on the support line along with the trench hospitals and kitchens.

…Good.

What wasn't good was that was also right in front of the artillery guns. Those loud guns fired too often for anyone to rest well.

Regardless, Joshua grabbed a Spell Engine from the supply (as was his right as a mage) and began trekking down the communication trench to reach the main lines.

It was muddy. That was obvious enough but the mud was annoyingly thick right now. Each footstep got stuck for a second as he pulled his foot up. This tiring walk took him past the artillery lines (to which it should be noted he was able to set up a silencing spell to protect his ears) and down to the support lines.

He was here at last. The frontlines of the war. What had he gotten himself into? Whatever, best to check on his fellow mages.

He asked for exact directions to their base and found a small cave-like opening. A trench bunker. The floor was still muddy in here but there were thin mats that you could lie on to rest.

There weren't any familiar faces here though, only more experienced mages. Joshua introduced himself to them and they replied in kind. They weren't all english actually. One was. He was called George and he was apparently the leader of this little squad. Then there was the American, Roy and the Frenchman Louise.

…No this wasn't the start of a joke.

Of the latter two, Louise seemed to be the less crazy of them. His English was good even if he did still have his heavy accent.

Roy on the other hand was…

Okay, imagine all the American stereotypes of the world wars. The kind of "You wouldn't have won without us" kind of thing. Roy was a living version of that. He seemed to think it was an honour for the rest of them to fight with him. Let that be repeated. It wasn't "It's an honour to fight with you," his disposition was that "You should all feel honoured to fight with me."

That said, he wasn't a bully. He was just very over the top. George and Louise had apparently learned to deal with him so now it seemed that Joshua would need to learn too. He was apparently quite skilled so he could cover Joshua or any of the rest of them in a fight.

Well then. Hopefully none of them would mind that Joshua didn't want to kill.

Spoiler: Author Notes

A bit of a placeholder chapter and the one that more than most others demonstrates just how little I know of how militaries work. I did the best I could with googling things over the writing of this (Even if it did make my search history look a little bizarre.)
…I feel like I'll be rewriting this chapter in the future when someone's review complains about how "Unrealistic this all is." To that, currently hypothetical at the time of writing, person: As long as you're not abrasive I'm fully willing to rewrite large parts of this chapter.

 

[boyboy180]

In the morning, Joshua set off with his fellow mages. They kicked off the ground and flew into the sky.

Joshua heard a slight humming from his spell engine. This one was much stronger than the one he'd been trained with. Hopefully that would mean he'd be safer.

"Alright!" George called over the radio link "let's move out Thrones."

Joshua's assigned team were called Thrones, after the type of angel, not the furniture. George was "Throne Lead." Then there was Louise and Roy who were "Throne two" and "Throne three" respectively. Lastly Joshua was "Throne four."

The team accelerated relatively slowly to two hundred kilometres per hour and ascended skyward. They were to scout out the target town from the sky.

Below them, the machines of war would have begun their march. Soldiers and tanks pushed forwards to join them in the battle to come.

Joshua accelerated slightly to draw in closer to George.

"Lieutenant?" Joshua asked "What sort of thing do we expect to find there?"

George nodded "Ham was taken over in the offensive earlier this year. The Jerrys know that they're losing ground and that means they'll likely have reinforced the town. Intelligence confirmed there's a garrisoned force beforehand containing many men and some heavier weapons. In the worst case, they may have anti-air guns that we'd need to be careful of. Did you drill the tactics to avoid them at the academy?"

Joshua nodded, confirming "Yes, rapid movement and trying to climb."

George nodded "Well then, you should be fine. The German demons are traditionally ground-based. If we see them, we can shoot them. They take a lot of punishment to put down but they aren't a threat to us in the same way as artillery guns are."

After a bit longer, George ordered Joshua back into formation and he fell back.

As he flew, Joshua wondered if demons would count as humans. Back in the world of Final Fantasy, he hadn't really had a problem killing monsters. This wasn't really a debate that held any weight in his original world as if you could think like a human then you were a human. He'd fought demons in final fantasy that had thoughts though…

Hmm. Well, what would he say counted as a person? If they were sophonts, that might be enough on its own, but that would also make his killing of those demons in final fantasy another thing he had to atone for.

No, they had been trying to kill him and the returners. There was no non-lethal option there. Using the same logic he was using now, he had killed them because there was no way to "just hurt them until they stopped."

So then, the same should apply to this world's demons too. George was off at the front and Roy rubbed him the wrong way so Louise was the best remaining choice.

They were still a short ways off so Joshua again adjusted in the formation to talk to him.

All this shifting around wasn't really a problem if done slowly. Formation flying just made them easier to shoot even if it did make long distance travel less likely to get lost while up in the air. As long as everyone was following George, everything was fine.

"Louise, what are the demons that the Germans have, I've heard a lot about them but I don't know what's true."

"Hmm." he pondered for a few seconds before answering "I 'ave not seen them myself but I 'ave 'eard they are something like a magically enhanced soldier. Not literal 'ellbeasts."

Well, if they're human, he'd still have to avoid killing them. The concept of a magically enhanced human brought the chimaera soldiers from FMA to mind. Maybe even homunculi, though the idea of mass producing those felt strange. And horrible when he thought about it, it was a waste of life.

Regardless, they were approaching their target over the radio (encrypted and short range now they were close to the target) George spoke.

"All mages, slow to 50km and climb at a 60 degree angle."

As requested, everyone's flight paths shifted to follow him as he climbed skyward.

Finally they all paused at around five thousand feet. Below them, and a good distance away, they could see their target. George got out a set of binoculars

"Throne two, contact the advancing force and relay this information."

Louise nodded, ready to head off when told. George began rattling off information from his observation.

At the same time, Joshua and Roy just floated, keeping an eye out for enemy mages, planes or just about anything else that could cause a bad time.

As they watched, Roy pointed suddenly.

"There! Mages!"

Indeed, an enemy squad of mages were moving in. There were more of them than there were on your side. Maybe six to their four.

George dropped his binoculars, a lanyard keeping them from falling to the earth far below.

"Everyone, prepare to intercept!"

Joshua raised his rifle as the shots started flying. He dove to the side but hesitated as an enemy came into his crosshairs. Instead of pulling the trigger, Joshua just darted away from another shot flying towards him.

They were so high in the air, a stray shot may render anyone incapable of flying. He wasn't that version of Batman who still claimed to have never killed someone after letting people fall to their deaths. If he shot someone and they fell, he would have killed them.

That said, the battle was too dynamic to aim for their rifles.

"Come on!" He told himself "Kill or be killed. If they hit you, you would die for the very same reasons."

Joshua raised his gun and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit through one of the enemy mages' passive defensive spells. The mage was still flying though and turned his gun on Joshua who was forced to dive to avoid the counter shot. He returned fire of his own and missed a few times due to shaking hands as the enemy mage's coat was dyed red from his blood.

"Come on!" He said again "You've killed before in the defence of your life."

His gun cracked again. Another bullet took the enemy mage. As they shot and Joshua tried to dodge, he saw another mage aiming for him. Damn it, he was caught in a pincer. No way out!

But then Roy flew in, his shoulder crashing into the enemy mage's shield and freeing that space for Joshua to escape the flying bullets. Roy had just saved his life.

Joshua kept going, dodging a shot as he turned back on his original foe. Mages fighting was quite different than planes. Mages could move in ways ignoring gravity and air speed. Mages couldn't stall out and that meant there were far more options to move in combat.

Joshua focused, enchanting his next bullet as it shot towards his enemy. When it missed, the enemy was probably happy right up until the shell exploded behind them. As Joshua watched them fall, terror gripped him. He forced it down. Kill or be killed.

Turning he took stock of the rest of the battle.

It wasn't great.

"Louise!" He heard George yell as the frenchman fell, blood exploding from a wound in his chest. Joshua couldn't tell where he'd been hit but it had been enough to knock him out and disable his flight.

As George began a rapid clash with enemy mages to avenge the wound on Louise, Joshua dived.

He could accelerate down faster than gravity was pulling his new acquaintance. Even so, to catch him before he hit the ground would be quite the stunt.

Dropping down, he slowed himself as he got to Louise, grabbing him out of the air carelessly could result in further harm. Joshu grabbed him and forced himself to decelerate. It was the force of two men in freefall against all of the magic he had.

He didn't make it.

There had just not been enough space left when he'd caught Louise. That said, they didn't crash into the hard ground, but instead to the branches of a large tree. They broke every branch on the way down but combined with the deceleration that Joshua had been working on, all Joshua felt when he tumbled onto the ground were scratches and a headache.

There was no time to worry about himself though. He instantly went to tend to Louise.

Okay… Louise was alive. Looked like the shot had gone through his belly, off to the left side… left by Joshua's reckoning but that would make it the right side of his body. What was there…? The intestines?

Yeah, that sounded right. Okay. Was the bullet still in the wound? He had a basic alchemy kit with him and he used it to make antiseptic to put on the entrance wound while he turned the body gingerly to check for an exit wound.

…Okay. Yes. There was an exit wound. That meant that Joshua's healing alchemy would be safe to use. He washed his glove in the antiseptic. The glove already had the right circle on so he pushed it against the wound.

He missed his cure spell.

With a blast of alchemic lightning, the wounds healed over. Joshua breathed a sigh of relief. Looking up at the sky, he didn't know if the fight was still ongoing but he needed to check. He quickly drew a symbol to create a disguise for Louise while he was hiding and healing. The quickly drawn alchemic circle created a little cave for him with enough air for a short while. Once he was done with that, he realised it would have all taken a few minutes. The fight was likely over by now.

As he rose, he cautiously opened the radio link. He was away from the wounded now but this would allow enemies to track him.

"Throne four here, Throne two is alive and has received treatment. Over."

There was a pause as Joshua rose. Had his team survived?

"Roger, Throne four this is throne three." His radio buzzed "Throne Lead is badly wounded. Would you be able to help him? Over."

They were alive.

"Yes, but come towards the ground, over."

Roy managed to bring George down to where Joshua was performing treatment but…

"Oh."

Joshua looked at his leader for this short time.

"After Louise fell, he fought against the enemies like a man possessed. He downed all that had been left with my help. But…"

His face was sprayed in blood and there were multiple red stains along his coat. Not all of them had exit wounds. George floated between life and death. Without first aid.

"I'll begin treatment. Get his coat off and lay him down on it."

Roy complied as Joshua made more antiseptic. He had to remove the bullets first and that may be messy. The lead had to come out of the body as soon as possible. Just shattering it would ensure lead poisoning. Joshua also had to do this in a way that wouldn't poison the rest of them too.

He had analysed gunshot injuries at the academy, had looked into how to treat them if there was still a bullet in the wound. His medical kit, which is what the bag with the alchemic ingredients basically was, did have a set of tweezers. Joshua cleaned them as best he could and went about removing the bullets.

One had stopped on a rib. The rib had shattered but he wasn't dead. He'd also broken a number of other bones on bullets. His left arm and right leg both now had a shattered bone and one less bullet than before Joshua's treatment had started.

George was still alive, his heart beating weaker with each second Joshua took.

And then "Damn it." Joshua cursed "Base of the spine."

He couldn't remember what all the bones of the spine were called but a bullet had caught right between two of the plates. That would be crippling. Even so…

"Roy, I'm treating the front. When I ask, help me turn him over."

Joshua cleaned his glove again and began applying his healing to each wound he could reach. Alkahestry could speed up the bodies ability to create blood so that should help keep the body alive for the next few minutes at least.

"Turn."

Together they shifted Goerge onto his back and Joshua took out a scalpel before pausing.

He wasn't trained to do this.

"No, turn him back again. I'll leave this to surgeons."

Roy looked a little worried but he did so and Joshua closed that last bullet wound and then applied the alkahestry to George as much as he could. His pulse was still weak, Joshua wasn't sure it had all been enough.

Around them, they heard movement. The armour and infantry teams had finally caught up. Some of them took note of you and directed you all to the medics.

This wasn't a loss. While two of the mages were down, they'd taken out all of the enemy mages. The others were still about to fight.

Reluctantly, Joshua and Roy worked together to move the injured towards the more professional healers. Joshua just hoped he hadn't made any massive mistakes while healing.

Spoiler: Author Notes

I'm also not any kind of medic. I've just heard that if something is left in a wound depends on how big it is. If it impaled a person, leave it in as it stems blood. But if it was smaller like a bullet, you want to get it out so it doesn't leach into the blood and body.
Joshua is also not a surgeon, so he didn't feel anywhere confident taking a bullet out of the spine. The other bones were fine to him though as again, he didn't want to seal over any bullet-holding wounds unless he had to for safety reasons.

 

[boyboy180]

When they got to the healers, Joshua explained the situation. One of the rear commanders then ordered Joshua and Roy back to the battlefield. With the mage complement defeated in that quick skirmish, they lacked direct options to counter allied mages.

The two mages took off, Joshua looking back towards the hospital tent that had been set up quickly as the battle had begun.

"Hey, Roy?"

"Yeah?" The American mage responded.

"Did you expect this when coming out here?"

The two flew in silence for a few seconds before Roy answered.

"In a way, I knew I'd lose people fighting with me. It was inevitable in a way. Even if the god of war promised us victory, we'd still lose people."

Huh, Joshua hadn't expected an answer like that. Even so he pushed for more.

"And?"

"And so it didn't really surprise me that we took losses." Roy admitted "I'll grieve later, once this battlefield has grown silent."

…Maybe Roy was better than Joshua had given him credit for.

As they flew up and took sight of the town of Ham, they radioed in to say they were in position. They linked up with the artillery teams. They'd announce targets to hit while using their own rifles to fire their own magical shells.

Buildings fell, and Joshua winced. When he went to pull his trigger he froze up. After a moment to center himself, it made sense why.

If he fired his gun, people would die even if he wasn't shooting at them. The explosive shells just did too much damage. Even so, he continued to give firing instructions for the artillery guns.

What was it that allowed him to do one but not the other. In each case he was picking the target and it would have the same result, the target blown to pieces. Maybe it was just that he wasn't pulling the trigger himself.

The artillery crews couldn't see the people they were killing. It wasn't personal for them. He couldn't really say that they had the moral culpability here either.

When he realised that. Joshua froze up. He'd done it again. He was culpable for all deaths that came of those guns.

"Joshua, what's wrong?" Roy had noticed how he'd stopped radioing instructions or shooting himself.

Joshua shook his head "I… I am not cut out for war."

When fighting hand to hand, it was kill or be killed. Here, every soldier that died in those buildings or tanks was a murder. They had no way of killing him, not as he was now. Sure, if not dealt with in another way then they'd still go on to kill soldiers on the same side as Joshua himself. Either he killed, or allowed people on his side to die.

Sure, you could say he wasn't morally culpable for that, the soldiers were. But that was just creating a trolly problem. If Joshua killed the five to ten soldiers in that building, it could save some number of allied lives. Assuming that the number of allies is higher then surely the moral thing to do would be to kill.

But he couldn't.

"You haven't been hit have you?" Roy asked, a little worried.

Joshua shook his head "No, I guess… I guess I'm just a coward in the end."

He didn't want to kill again. He was scared of killing again. Those flowers that he'd used to make a hat turned out to have been true after all. It was funny in a way.

"A coward…?" Roy didn't seem to understand.

"I can't… morally withstand killing if it's not a kill or be killed situation."

He noted all of the thoughts to Roy, the contradiction within him. The explanation had to be broken off at points for Roy to shoot or give the artillery targets but it did come out.

Joshua didn't tell Roy about the reasons of course. The fact that he was scared to kill stood on its own as the core reason.

Roy turned away, a kind of… disgust would be the wrong word but whatever it was, it was negative.

The fact that Joshua still would, and had, killed in the defence of himself or his allies had been said but it seemed to anger Roy that he wouldn't kill for any of the nameless that would be killed by people he could have stopped first.

So, Joshua moved to help the battle in his own way. He darted to the ground to pull injured soldiers off the battlefield. A male valkyrie in a way. He wore a mask and flew into danger, using his body and magic to shield those that would have died.

Not everyone he took made it, even with his first aid. That said, he did save lives. People who would have died otherwise would live to see the next sunrise and hopefully many more.

When the guns finally stopped, when the remaining enemies had fled from the town, all that was left was destruction. Well, the town was still there, but there were few buildings that hadn't been damaged in some way during the attack

Joshua moved into Ham with the medics with the goal of saving as many human lives as possible. Nationality wouldn't matter here. If you were an ally you'd be healed and saved. If you were an enemy you'd be healed and captured as a PoW.

"Over here!" A medic would call Joshua. He'd rush over and find a man bleeding out his life's blood while his arm had been blown a few meters away. He'd use his healing alchemy as best as he could to reattach the arm and wonder if this was one of the men who'd been hurt in one of the attacks he'd been the spotter for.

Even so, they had taken the town. This was a victory. The death count was small compared to some battles that had occurred over the past few years.

The town's repairs started quickly. Engineers fortifying the place to act as a forward base for the attacks on Germany itself that would come in the future.

Then the demons came. It was an attack made in haste to try and recapture the town. They struck in the night.

In some ways, Joshua had guessed correctly at their nature. They had on their bodies a tattoo and they weren't quite human. That tattoo wasn't that of an ouroboros but instead a star inside a circle, the seal of solomon.

Joshua had seen it mentioned in one of his alchemic textbooks as being related to the summoning of demons.

This demon, Joshua just thought of it as "The Flame Demon" shot great blasts of fire out of its mouth that set alight the buildings around them. There were wounded in there. Joshua would consider this defence of the self and others.

He pulled out his rifle and took aim, shooting the demon from a blind spot. That just pulled the monster's attention towards him though as the wound healed quickly.

Yep, these were Homunculi.

As fire blew his way, Joshua began formulating a strategy. The powers of a Homunculi always had some kind of alchemical basis. Reshaping carbon, extending limbs, etc. If this demon was breathing out fire there must be some reaction going on. Probably including flammable gas.

If so, how was he creating a spark?

As Joshua dodged another attack and tried to lure the demon away from the injured, he took a good look at his enemies.

There, on its hands was the answer. A small ring on his left hand. A tiny spell engine with likely only a single spell: something that would make a spark. This demon was a combination of different styles of magic. Whenever he generated flammable gas and breathed it through his hands, the gas would ignite into a roaring blast of flame. Right then. This wouldn't be as easy as just dousing him with water now would it?

Joshua grabbed a piece of chalk from his pocket and drew a circle on an empty building as he passed it before activating it. As the demon ran to catch up with him, the building shook and toppled down. Joshua had only weakened the wall but this was a lucky break.

As the demon was regenerating, Joshua spun on it. His Sparkblade cut cleanly through the demon's left arm. The hand with the ring dropped to the ground. The fight wasn't over that easily though. The wound began healing quickly and the demon kicked Joshua. The blow was heavy and Joshua flew back into a wall. He stood shakily as the demon reattached its arm.

Okay, what's the next move? Joshua almost laughed despite the panic as he thought of what classic "Smart protagonists" would do right now.

He came up with a plan but it was a bit of a stretch. He yelled at the demon to keep it's attention as he continued to retreat. This plan wasn't safe to use in the town itself.

Fire shot over the blood soaked fields as Joshua dragged the fight there. He was exhausted, his body beginning to fail. His arms were burned but he was still going. In a moment the demon was distracted, he quickly drew a circle on the ground. He used his alchemy to open a tunnel into the earth at a 45 degree angle. The dirt had to go somewhere and it shoved up the ground like a hill.

Joshua was now ready.

When the demon rushed over to where it had seen the light of alchemy, Joshua was nowhere to be seen. There was however a tunnel into a small hill and a small light flickering within.

The demon charged in, ready to kill the alchemist-mage. A high priority target for the demon if only because of their ability to fulfil multiple roles. Most Demons were uncreative and… a little foolish. When it went inside, all there was to see was a small piece of quickly cooling metal. A bullet that had been enchanted to glow.

Joshua wasn't in there.

As the demon realised it had been tricked, Joshua sealed the entrance. He didn't collapse the tunnel though.

He'd stopped it. That was it.

If the demon was smart, he wouldn't try to breathe any fire in there. It would burn up what little oxygen was left. If the demon was smart though… what would be its next move?

As it turned out, the demon wasn't smart.

A great explosion came from the field outside of Ham later that night. The cause was easy enough to understand. The demon had just kept breathing out more gas and eventually… it had all gone up. At once.

This was a strange case. It was kill or be kill, but he'd been able to take out the demon non-lethally, but the demon had still died in a way it wouldn't have if he'd not acted thusly. Was Joshua responsible for the death?

Regardless, Joshua couldn't care much. He was in the hospital for his burn injuries. Luckily they wouldn't take too long to heal.

"Luckily." Huh? Did Joshua want to be in this war now? He wasn't sure. He wanted to see his friends again at least, those that had trained with him.

So he stayed there, in that hospital containing the forms of soldiers he'd saved earlier that day, and he rested. His alchemy was able to heal the worst of the damage quickly. That said, he'd still be here for the next week.

Well, it would give him a chance to catch up on his reading. And maybe he'd be able to have a happy dream.

Not much luck of that happening, as his Sparkblade glowed softly in his pocket.

Spoiler: Author Notes

This is actually two chapters in my planning document stuck together. Originally part 8 would just be "After the battle" while part 9 would be the encounter with the demon but since each would be fairly short, I crushed them together. I shifted the chapters around a bit and made a new chapter to be put in the empty slot (Chapter 13 now) which I'll write in detail later.
Joshua is finally dealing with the problems of war properly though. It's one thing to save your team and quite another to act as an artillery spotter.
Next time, we get one of the scenes I've been looking forward to writing in this arc.

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.

I've been forgetting to put that in the last few, but I honestly do really like feedback.

 

[boyboy180]

Joshua opened his eyes to a bright light. Where was he? Was he not meant to be lying in a hospital bed?

He was standing here in an endless void of white. It wasn't so much that he was blinded by shining light, but more as if the "background colour" was simply white.

He stood on a white floor, in the distance he could see white. Not merely white walls but white…endlessness.

This was very clearly not a normal sort of place.

Behind him was a large door, it was made of some unclear materials. Stone that shone like metal or metal that carved like stone. Upon this door was a golden- no. Something greater than gold. It was an inlay of metallic brilliance. It just surrounded the outer edges of the door, leaving the stone or metal faces of the door clean. Those doors had carvings in them. Each carving was of a circle with a point in the center, like an incredibly simple Alchemic circle. There were many hundreds of small circles decorating the surface.

"What… wasn't I asleep?"

"How strange?" Another voice spoke as if it had been waiting for him.

The speaker was standing in front of him, had it been there when he'd been looking around? Its body was white and so against the white it was hard to see. It looked humanoid though, about as tall as Joshua himself.

Joshua blinked, his mind clicking into place and forgetting his sleepiness.

"You are… the Truth?"

The figure smiled "That is one name for me, or perhaps you'd call me The World, or you might call me The Universe, or perhaps God? I am all and I am one, so of course this also means that-"

"You are me?" Joshua interrupted him.

The Truth sighed, raising its arms in a slight shrug "Something like that? It was a surprise to me really."

"What was?" Joshua asked "Do you… know what I am?"

"A renegade." Truth noted simply "A piece that doesn't fit and doesn't try. Normally, one like you would be obvious to see. But you fit into the All so well that I didn't notice until you knocked on the door."

Joshua glanced back, looking at his Portal of Truth.

"Did you bring me here? Are you like Arceus, exiling me because of the damage I do?"

The Truth remained silent at that and Joshua continued looking back.

"If that's the case… I'm sorry. I'm not trying to damage anything. I don't want… I don't want to be a danger to a World."

"Hmm." The Truth finally nodded "Yes, you're better than I would have feared. As I am You, I know you. At least the you that has come to exist within this world. I don't know what came before though, tell me."

The idea that the Truth didn't know was odd but Joshua closed his eyes and began at the very beginning. How his world fell. How he escaped. The meeting with Arceus. His loss of memories in Final Fantasy. His arrival here.

Truth just waited in silence before nodding.

"And you know of the answer already, do you not?"

Joshua again turned back to the door.

"I know the story that is told in some other world. The story of the Elric brothers. I know… that to them you said the Right Answer was the sacrifice of his Alchemy in order to save his brother."

The Truth didn't say anything, as if prompting Joshua to continue.

"But I… I don't have the friends and allies to fall back on. Not with my World lost. Would you say I had the wrong answer in seeking power to save them?"

At Truth's continued silence, Joshua couldn't say anything.

His mind echoed the lines he'd heard years ago when he'd watched the series.

"Just tell me what I was supposed to do?" The dwarf in the flask had asked "What did I do wrong, what should I have done?"

Was Truth going to judge him for his desire? His sin of wanting for more?

The Truth cracked a smile.

"Your wish is not wrong."

Behind him, Joshua heard the opening of the great doors that led to his Portal. Behind him the gate opened its eye. The shadowy hands grabbed and pulled at Joshua as he fought against him.

"Please, I-"

"You don't wish for conflict." Truth noted "I can understand that."

No, they were pulling him in. He struggled and fought before finally a thought occurred.

Well, I tried my best.

The force increased, Joshua reached for his Sparkblade and found it glowing. A pure and perfect light that shone in every colour.

"You shouldn't." Truth warned "I respect you, but do more and I will have to do a lot more than just this."

Joshua didn't understand as the doors began to close, shutting him inside the darkness. Information flowed like rivers and he saw it.

Every secret of Alchemy and Alkahestry revealed themself in that stream. As he learned, it was like some of the light within his Sparkblade was leaving. A trade of sorts, equivalent exchange. Whatever the true nature of the power, it was being traded in return for this information.

The flow continued. How to work souls, bonding them to armour or using them to form a philosopher's stone. No! Joshua shoved that knowledge aside. He didn't want to hurt people, even if in return it would give him great power. The act of creating a stone was the worst kind of sin. Enslavement for the rest of your existence, your life and soul used as nothing more than a resource.

He saw advanced Alkahestry and how he could make a man immortal. It would need a stone though so it too was ignored.

"I don't want to kill!" He yelled out into the void "Show me something I could use to save!"

The information that he asked for was given to him. How to save the dead. Properly that was. The full makeup of a human body plus one soul. But what could equal the soul's value? Another soul-

"No! No soul alchemy, I won't hurt people like that!"

Medical knowledge flowed in instead. How he could perform those projects he'd had back at the Academy. Creating artificial blood to match a victim's blood type. Removing cancers and pathogens from a body. Even alchemy to undo brain damage as long as the victim still lived. Yes, this is what he'd been looking for!

In the end he absorbed it all. It flashed before his eyes, all the knowledge one could ever gain from alchemy. The Truth had given him it all. In return his Sparkblade was now dark. It still had power in it but its payment for this service was done.

It could take a millennium to absorb all that he'd learned properly. But in theory, there was now nothing he couldn't do with alchemy.

The door slammed closed again and Joshua found himself standing in the void again, Truth sitting on the ground now.

"That Choice Power is part of your payment." It explained languidly "But there is another cost."

Joshua stiffened. Was he about to lose an arm or a leg? Maybe his tongue? His eyes? An organ? Truth's prices were always ironic in some way. He wanted power, would power be taken from him in turn?

The Truth chuckled "No, this won't be a cost you'll be unable to bear I think. Those prices are for those who, while they have so much, think they deserve even more without giving up anything. You have given up much though, even if not intentionally. You will be hungry, you will suffer while others enjoy themselves, you fought in a war not your own and, most importantly, you chose to take the harder route. To not kill, to not cast judgement. Those are your prices. And it's in honour of those that I bestow the final cost of all the knowledge of alchemy onto you; you will never use it as a weapon. Alchemy is how you heal people, it's how you shelter people and how you save people. Don't you agree?"

Joshua froze at the… compliment? That's what it was right. Then he nodded.

"Of course."

Everything around went hazy, as if becoming shrouded in fog.

The Truth laughed "Well then, good luck. And once you leave, don't visit again unless there is no other option."

Joshua's eyes snap open.

He was lying on the hospital bed. There was no breakfast here, as there hadn't been for the last two days. They just didn't have the resources for it.

As he thought about that, he looked down at his hands. He knew instinctively that he could also now perform a clapping transmutation. The circle his arms made were enough to project any effect out into the world.

Truth… This world's god was very different to how Arceus had been.

His burns were better now and he softly clapped before resting a hand on them. The burned skin sloughed away while healthy new skin appeared underneath.

Slowly, he pulled himself out of bed and took a shaky step. Then another. He sat down on a chair at the end of the hall and then made his way back to the bed, sitting on it while deep in thought.

When the nurses came and saw he'd been healed, he'd had to leave the hospital early. Before he left though, he checked around to see what had happened to the rest of your team.

Louise would live, he'd probably even be fit for duty in a few more days like you would have been. George was worse, he'd been paralysed from the waist down.

…Joshua could heal him though, but it would likely require him to reveal his about to transmute without a circle.

He decided to visit after the war was over. That would also mean that George wouldn't be hurt any further in the meantime. He'd already earned some medals for his valour and that was probably good enough.

Roy had already returned to the war. Joshua would soon be following him. After grabbing lunch from the hospital he'd joined the convoy heading back to the lines.

The artillery was exploding again, the war didn't feel much closer to ending even if they had apparently dealt a heavy blow in that battle.

When he made his way to the aerial mage bunker, there was even a pleasant surprise for him. On top of Roy, who looked annoyed to see him so soon, his friends from the Academy were here too.

William, John and Mary. All still alive.They'd all been on missions too and they had been wounded but they were ready to fight the "good" fight again.

Apparently the "final" phase of the war would be soon. The American hero, the so-called 'God of War' would be coming to the front line in person to fight alongside them. Joshua was curious about this unknown. Would it be the Main Character of this strange setting. That made sense at least, even if it was a little annoying.

There were ever more rumours about him. John and Roy bonded over sharing stories about him.

"He's a giant."
"He speaks like a master orator."
"People think he might be able to become the president after the war."
"He's invincibile."
"He's a living saint."

All those kinds of things. It all sounded a bit unrealistic to William and Joshua though.

With his friends, and Roy, Joshua did ask for help with how to help without killing those who couldn't fight back. Roy was still annoyed he thought it was a problem at all but the others understood.

Though after his friends tried to offer him some basic peaceful options like pulling the injured off the battlefield (Which he had already done) and other things like that, it was actually Roy who gave a 'good' suggestion.

"If your problem is with those who can't fight back, why not give them a chance?" He suggested "Get into Melee, go after ground forces like that and they could definitely fight back."

On one side that sounded like Roy was just saying "Jump right at the enemy and get yourself killed." On the other side, Joshusa believed it might be the only way he'd be able to fight as a mage. At least he had his barriers so it wasn't entirely suicide.

He took all the ideas though and began working on how he'd explain it to others.

Spoiler: Author Notes

While the Truth does want him not to use Alchemy as a weapon at all, he could only really tell in a world which had FMA alchemists already. He's not omniscient when it comes to other worlds. Joshua's likely still going to hold on to the promise in other worlds though because it feels right.
Also, if you want to know "What was his payment?" Choice points. 300 choice points because he's getting a discount on Alchemist perks. Otherwise it would be 600 to buy the perk called "Truth."
Also, in case I didn't make it obvious enough. The Truth is a Benefactor-tier entity like Arceus in this series. Anything sufficiently god-like probably will be. This means that in a way this was the same Truth as Canon. Any differences come from the fact that he is technically "Joshua's Truth" as he's reflecting him right now.

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want. In previous chapters, it has helped me fix old chapters to make them more understandable.

 

[boyboy180]

"No." William stated bluntly "Just running in to get yourself killed won't fly."

Joshua sighed as they both sat in their bunks in the cold and wet bunker. It was raining at that meant the floor of the bunker was flooded in water and mud. Since none of them wanted to catch Trench Foot (Even if Joshua could cure it) they were all keeping above the mud.

"But I can't fight otherwise!" Joshua noted "I won't kill those who can't kill me."

The only ones who should kill, are those who are prepared to be killed.

William just shook his head though "I've heard of shellshock, of people refusing to fight out of fear, but acting like a stupid daredevil is something entirely different. Back me up here guys."

John and Mary nodded.

"This isn't really the pacifistic way?" John noted "I thought you were the kind of person who didn't want to kill at all."

Joshua nodded sadly but noted "I thought so too, but now I've got myself caught in a logical issue."

It was the same as what he'd thought about before, he explained it to the others simply.

"First, I won't kill unless it's in direct defence of life. Second, if I would let a soldier live, they would likely go on to kill one of ours. Thus in defence of their lives I should kill, but they aren't able to hurt me in any way and may miss or just not shoot at any of ours."

When in a skirmish, Joshua could "tell" if someone was about to kill him or one of the other mages. But in a long drawn out battle there wasn't an easy way to tell.

"And acting as a spotter for artillery is no better." Joshua noted "I'm still killing someone. That crew wouldn't know to shoot there if I didn't tell them."

William's head fell into his hands as he sighed.

"For the love of God Joshua, flip a coin or something. Heads means you kill no one and get to be a pacifist while pulling people off the battlefield and healing them. Tails means you accept that in killing you are saving and help us shoot."

He tossed a coin over the water and Joshua caught it and looked at it in the lantern light. It didn't look like any coin he was familiar with. He flipped the coin over to look at its other side and laughed softly. It was a shilling coin. Of course, Decimalisation hadn't happened yet. English money was still using the old system. He didn't remember the translation rate but he could at least tell heads from tails.

He didn't really want to become Two-face but he could use this to resolve the current issue at least.

"Okay."

Joshua flicked the coin into the air with his thumb and the little silvery coin flipped through the air.

He grabbed it with his other hand and smacked it down onto the underside of his palm before slowly uncovering it.

He looked at the coin for a long moment. Was he really happy with this outcome? Would doing that really resolve his issue?

…

"Tails." he noted, revealing the coin to the others.

To kill, was he really willing to do that? He felt a darkness within well up at that thought. A feeling of approaching a taboo.

He debated with the darkness. As if asking himself. The thoughts were silent, more like prayers in a way.

"I would be fighting to defend others." He thought "In killing I am saving."

His inner voice gave him an answer.

"I can only kill in defence if it's the only option. In that there was nothing else I could do to save that life."

"How else would I save that unknown soldier? The soldier that will die if that enemy doesn't."

He knew what his answer was though.

He threw the coin back at William.

"I will save, without killing anyone else."

What would have been the results if he'd gotten heads. William nodded at that but Roy snorted.

"After that? That wasn't what the coin said."

"Screw the coin." Joshua noted bluntly "It was only there to force me to make a decision. I have made it. I won't madly rush into fights, I will kill only in defence of myself and those I'm flying with. I will save those on the battlefield in the way only I can: My healing Alchemy."

The decision had been made. Even if this wasn't the most correct answer, it was the one he could accept. With that sorted out he almost thought about revealing his improved alchemy to remove all the water from the bunker. It wouldn't really be that hard.

Isaac McDougal, that Alchemist who's an original character to Brotherhood. The Freezing Alchemist. His work was included in the information the Truth had given him. If Joshua wanted he could freeze the water in this room and move it outside. He couldn't clear the entire camp without a stone but he wouldn't need to.

But no, partially because that would likely make the military force him into combat even more and he'd just decided not to get involved in all of that.

Whatever. They could wait here for a little longer.

It was a good thing they had their Spell engines, without them they probably would have gone without supper that day. John had pointed it out when they were getting hungry and the small crew basically floated out of the barracks as carefully as they could to get to the mess hall bunker.

There they heard more rumours about the American "God of War."

Granted, it didn't sound as silly as it did before. With all the glowing reviews of his skill from those few American troops that had met him and the like. The only thing that kept breaking Joshua's enjoyment were when they told stories about his victories.

"He ran between the enemy lines, with each swing of his arm another would die. He was the whirlwind that took the German's black lives away from them."

Things like that. The stories of death. That said, if he was the Main Character of this world, those sorts of stories should be expected. They were all probably different stages for him or something like that.

He arrived a week later.

The man they called the "God of War" was tall. His muscles bulged and his smile beamed when he looked around the mess hall.

His name was Jake Christ and Joshua found it difficult to not like him. There was a charisma to him.

"Hello Y'all."

Oh no.

He continued "I'm here to end this war!"

A cheer rose from everyone in the hall except Joshua who was more shocked by the greeting at first.

"We'll kill those Germans something fierce. We'll cripple their ability to ever fight again. They'll never get a chance to take revenge after this world war."

…Hold on a moment. As people were cheering, Joshua had noticed something.

No one called it the world war. People called it the great war. They spoke hoping this was the last war. This guy on the other hand… it was like he was holding himself back from saying "First world war."

That implied a second.

At once, Joshua was on alert even as his friends cheered around him.

This was a world of magic, maybe he was a precognitive? But what about his title as the God of War?

The man continued his speech and the crowd, and Joshua against his will were pulled along with every word.

"And you'll all have America to thank!" He said raising his hand "Without us, Y'all'd've lost this war and the Germans would have taken over the continent!"

A wave of fear rippled over the crowd and Joshua imagined a Europe ruled by Germans.

The man told stories about the vicious cruelty of the Germans and Joshua was stuck between two sides. One side of him wanted to nod along while the other was repulsed. What was going on? This reminded him of that day, the day when everything fell.

Finally, he had to stand up. To leave if nothing else. He waited for a cheer and headed towards the exit under the noise and clamour. As he left though, he heard a voice call out behind him.

"You, why are you leaving? I'm not done yet."

Joshua turned. Across the busy mess hall, his eyes met that of Jake Christ.

No way to run now that everyone's eyes were on him. Instead he stepped back into the room.

"I don't want to hear it anymore. The German people are people just like us, they're not monsters, they're just being led wrong."

Murmurs started in the crowd. Angry voices that were talking about Joshua bad-talking their God of War.

Jake seemed a little surprised but he shrugged "You'd call them good? Those monsters who gas innocents? These monsters who employed demons?"

Again, a little thought niggled at Joshua but he responded.

"They're gassing us, their enemies. And don't pretend our side is entirely innocent in that regard, we're gassing them too."

Even with Joshua telling the truth as he knew it, the crowd was still against him. He could even feel a pull within himself. A little voice that just said "The man is right, listen to what he has to say."

That little voice was what scared him. It was like that first day.

"Then the demons?" Jake demanded again "They employ forbidden acts to summon the unholy."

Joshua froze, he couldn't really offer a rebuttal to that. He didn't know exactly how demons were made but at his best guess they would require multiple sacrifices to create.

Jake took the chance to play to the crowd again "And to your earlier point: they would gas them! If given the chance. Those Monsters would kill us because we're not perfect like them."

Yep, there was definitely something there. Joshua could spring onto that point even if there wasn't anything he could argue about the demons.

"This is nothing about perfection!" Joshua put his foot down "This war began because of overlapping alliances!"

He knew about this from school in his first life and again when he'd been looking through the library at the Academy "Austria-Hungary's leader was killed in Serbia, When they asked Germany, Germany agreed to give support if a war was to break out. Serbia is protected by Russia who are allied with France and England joined the French and Russian side out of fear of France being overrun by Germany."

You took a breath. That was the, massively oversimplified, alliances that had caused the first world war.

Jake honestly looked a little surprised.

"We're on the same side as Russia?"

…Did he not know that? How did he not know that? This was a war he pulled America into!

Actually that was kind of worrying. Did this God of War lead his country into a war that they didn't fully understand? That…

Joshua nodded to answer the previous question and Jake looked a bit annoyed. He sighed and nodded.

"Well then, thank you for the history lesson ge-" He sighed "Sorry, You can go."

Joshua just nodded and left quickly out the door. It seems he'd managed to take the air out of him for a time. His presence had shifted at that time. He wasn't talking to a puffed-up warmonger, he was talking to a normal person. One who that talk showed loved his country. It was as if Roy was puffed up a bit more.

That last bit had him actually sound a little worried. Maybe he was worried about what he did while operating under wrong information?

As Joshua relaxed in the barracks alone. He thought about the debate. Had he sounded too preachy? Hopefully not. He didn't want to be the sort of person who acted like that. Not for any particular reason, the idea of it just felt off to him.

His friends eventually returned. They only had good things to say about Jake. It seems they thought he lived up to all that they'd heard. They didn't have anything against him though.

"He agreed with you." John said "After you left. The Germans are people, people who agreed to side with Austria-Hungary's war. They were looking for a chance to fight."

There wasn't really any proof that the Serbian government had anything to do with the assassination plot itself… Germany and Austria-Hungary had been the ones to launch the first attack.

In that way, that Jake's argument had changed to be about who was responsible instead of just calling the Germans monsters was a sign of improvement. Maybe Joshua could like him after all.

Besides, Joshua still didn't have an answer to the point about demons. From what he'd heard Germany was the only group that employed them. Truth's information had given him the method to create a homunculus using a philosopher's stone. If that was how demons were made in this world too…

What had driven Germany to that?

Spoiler: Author Notes

I don't own a real shilling coin but I did flip a real coin to make the decision in the chapter. What came next was the natural continuation.
The argument was altered from my first draft. In that Joshua just won the argument without any sticking points. That felt too preachy though so I added Jake throwing out the comment about demons to give something that Joshua couldn't argue against. Hopefully that made it better.
Also, Jake Christ. I dropped a lot of hints in this chapter (Not about the charisma ability, this is about something else). The only reason Joshua didn't pick up on what was going on outright is because he's never encountered this before. You all can probably see what's going on though.

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

As it turned out, that argument had been enough to prompt a Court Martial. The crime Joshua was accused of was "Potentially causing a mutiny in the forces." Or in other terms "Stop telling everyone the Germans are people because that might make the soldiers want to stop fighting."

Joshua didn't really blame them. It was necessary for Morale in a way. The worry was what would happen after the war if things like this continued. When the soldiers went home, they might still think of Germans as "Evil monsters and not people like us" which would lead to things like discrimination.

When they had suggested a harsh punishment for Joshua though, the American God of War had spoken up, asking them to be lenient.

So in the end, Joshua got two days confined to barracks and loss of those days' wages. Food would be brought to him though so he wouldn't starve.

…Sure? He didn't really care about his wages. Not like he'd be able to bring them with him. He expected that his next world would likely not accept the currency of this era. The two days of rest also just let him revise some more of the knowledge the Truth had given him.

He happily left the barracks after those two days though. He could be in a place for a while studying but he did miss the natural light.

The war continued week by week. The final plans were ready on the fourth of August. To get the Germans to sue for peace, they needed to deal a significant blow. A blow heavy enough to make Germany think twice about continuing.

The Germans were already retreating, it should be noted. This last push would just be to confirm that yes, they lost.

They needed a large push and a fresh wave of Canadian troops were ready to push it, supported, of course, by mages and the God of War.

The target was Mons. A town that did a lot of coal mining that had been captured early in the war. Without that coal, it was unlikely that Germany would be able to turn this war around.

Getting there though was a multipart plan that involved pushing through multiple towns.

The force set out at once and for the first time Joshua actually saw how the God of War fought.

He carried a rifle and a sword into battle and became a living blender. He really lived up to the legends people had said about him. He killed hundreds while Joshua saved but a precious few friends.

From the sky, Joshua scouted for where the fighting was hottest to pull people out of danger. That didn't mean he stuck around to fight though, he'd just dip in to grab them and then dip out. He'd take them somewhere nearby where he'd treat their injuries and then he'd be back to the sky where he might need to fight against German mages in close aerial combat.

When he found the chance, he tried to save others too. Even if it was just a lone German soldier bleeding out, he'd make sure they'd live.

The war was about to be over anyway and no matter what the military wanted people to say, they were people. They'd be friends in a few weeks.

After a few days of that as they made their way towards Mons, he started hearing something when he was dropping into heavy fire to rescue one of his allies.

"Einherjar!"

The German troops stopped shooting for a moment, giving enough time for Joshua to pull the ally free and to safety before the firefight resumed.

It seems they'd given him a title of sorts, even if not a fitting one in Joshua's opinion.

Let it not be said that Joshua didn't know his way around a large collection of mythologies.

Einherjar, meaning something like "He who fights alone." It was the army of Odin in Norse myths. He'd previously thought of himself as more of a valkyrie but the Germans had probably picked Einherjar for the sake of matching his Gender even if it wasn't accurate.

That said "Male Valkyrie" wasn't exactly accurate either so it was a bit of a moot point.

Forces broke, the God of War took lives and Joshua saved lives.

And then they finally reached the place the Germans had decided to hold as their last stand. Mons itself was the final objective to clear. This would be the largest battle Joshua had joined in so far. This was not going to be easy.

Jake seemed to think otherwise though. The God of War wanted to rush in at once to dominate the last battle of the war. Tacticians had told him to wait and he'd made a speech about it.

"Wait? You'd tell me to wait at this most crucial point? The end is just over there and we've energy to spare. If you don't want to go yet then let me go and open the way. When your plans are complete all you need to do is follow into the hole I have left you."

Some cheers went up in the planning tent at that as he wandered out into the late afternoon sun.

That forced that battle's planners to work with far greater haste than they'd meant to, coordinating the first attacks against Mons hours earlier than they'd intended to.

With a sigh, Joshua flew over the settlement. He and his friends were there. They picked off priority targets but there was no need for artillery coverage here. Not when this place was so important.

The tricky part was his rescue missions. When he saw heavy fighting he needed to fly into the concealing streets. He never knew what was around a corner until he took it.

Sometimes there would be calls of Einherjar but most would still shoot at him. This was the end of the war after all.

From their perspective this would probably be some sort of heroic last stand. His agility helped him stay out of lines of fire as he flew around to pull the wounded out.

At the same time, The God of War was ensuring this battle which in the real world might have taken days was being handled in hours.

Each life that would have been lost by his reckless charge had a chance because of Joshua though.

…Well, not all of them. That was impossible to keep up. He got to as many as he could though as the fight moved back and back into the city.

The enemy soldiers held up in the coal mine and that paused the battle for a while. Fighting inside a natural resource was stupid. Even if the Germans won in a situation like that, this town would still be useless to them.

They might be able to hold out for a while, but in making that choice, they'd already lost-

And that was the moment, as Joshua was hovering in the air looking at the locked gates of the mine, that a German sniper shot him.

The bullet made it through his barrier and blood sprayed out from his torso. The bullet hadn't gone all the way through but he still felt the burning pain from his chest as he fell.

The one life he couldn't save, his own.

As he crashed down though, he was caught.

"Hey there." Roy noted "Seems you've dropped in on me."

Joshua groaned at the joke as Roy carefully lowed him.

"What do you need? Can you treat yourself?"

Physician, heal thyself.

In theory he could use the same trick the Ed used to remove the rod of metal impaling him, but that wouldn't do anything about the bullet. That knowledge from Truth would be useless right now.

"No." Joshua grunted. Talking was painful. Best to minimise it "Get me to the medics."

Roy did. He picked up Joshua as carefully as he could and began to evac him out of the fighting.

"You're surprised I take it?" Roy asked as he flew, talking to make sure Joshua was still aware "As in, I've been rude and the like?"

"Not really." Joshua admitted quietly "Not after what happened before."

It was the rule, a rule that humans understood for millenia. If you save lives, you get respect for it. Saving is harder than killing, after all.

Roy snorted "I'm not doing this because you're a healer, I'm doing this because you've healed us and those with us more than a dozen times. I'm returning the favours we all owe."

Same difference in a way.

He took Joshua to the medics who looked him over and set him up in a bed to rest as they prepared to remove the bullet.

Eventually the pain and lack of other stimulation caused Joshua to pass out. He slept through the rest of the last battle in the war and woke up to good news.

It was one of the nurses who told him, as he was first sitting up. His belly was wrapped in treated bandages.

The nurse was announcing it to everyone in the field hospital.

"The great war is over! Germany has surrendered!"

Well then. Now it was just a matter of how this would all resolve itself. Few of the things Joshua had known about the history of the first world war had ever really said what had happened in the days immediately after the war.

It seemed he'd need to find out what happened himself. He had friends he needed to check in on and that sort of thing.

Roy, mostly. He'd done something really good by him there at the end and Joshua wanted to thank him properly. The man who he'd disliked at first had saved his life.

That said, this wound would slow him down. He'd be able to leave as soon as he was able to heal this wound enough. Eh. He had alchemy, he'd be out of this hospital within a few minutes at most.

Spoiler: Author Notes

And here we are, about 73% of the way through this jump about WW1 and the war is over before the story is. This chapter is also a little short, but I don't mind. This jump isn't going to have a massively long end chapter, but I don't mind including a few shorter chapters here at the end. 12 and 13 will probably be full length but I don't know about 14 and 15. The rest of this is about resolving what happened after the first world war.

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

Armistice day was a bit early in this world it seemed.

Joshua walked slowly down the road, a crutch he didn't entirely need under his arm. He wished he was heading home but that wasn't in the cards right now.

He was apparently being assigned as part of the temporary occupation force. There wasn't likely to be any more fighting though. The guns had fallen silent at last.

As he walked, people celebrated the end of the great war. It was likely that they didn't even consider the possibility that there would be another war.

And why should they really? His own world's history may be informing him but there was no proof that things would end up the same. Maybe Germany wouldn't have a tyrannical fascist rise up and take over. There was always some hope of that.

He boarded the train and rode it as far as it would take him. It was going east, towards Berlin.

The war may be over but that doesn't mean he was allowed to stop being a soldier yet.

At a train station he got off. The rail lines had apparently been destroyed for a stretch here so he needed to travel in other ways to the next station.

A car took him to the next town over, the driver talked excitedly along the way about the war's end.

"Hey, we did it at last!" He noted looking in the mirror "Why aren't you smiling?"

Joshua shrugged "I'm worried people won't learn and that this will all start again at some point."

The driver laughed "After all this? No. I think humanity will finally have had enough of war after this."

…Joshua wished he was right. While he did intend to stick around for a while he did want to be gone before twenty years passed. He wouldn't get to see if the world just made the same mistakes as it had before.

At the next town over, he boarded the train again. This one was going straight to Berlin.

In the capital city, the celebrations were winding down. The German people were happy to not be at war at last even if they had lost.

Joshua walked the streets, his Spell Engine in his pocket and the crutch clicking on the ground.

Nothing really happened that week though. Once the Armistice had been properly signed, he was called back into the occupation of the Rhineland.

The Treaty of Versailles hadn't been signed yet, that was still in discussion. Hopefully they wouldn't light the fuse that would lead to Germany falling for the same mistakes it did in his history.

He stuck around there for a few months and caught up with his friends. They'd all survived the war which was a miracle in a way.

William had taken a bullet, but he'd be fine. Not only had he been given good medical care when it had happened but also because of Joshua's healing alchemy.

John was fine, as was Mary. Mary though had gone home sooner than the rest of them. Apparently with the war now finished: Sexism was coming back. Mary had been furious in her letters and had joined the women's suffrage movement.

Huh, Joshua could have sworn that had completed its goal by now in his history? What on earth had delayed it? Regardless it sounded like the movement would complete its goal soon enough anyway, by the next general election at least hopefully.

Oh yes, Roy. He was working in a different area of the Rhineland to them. He'd sent greetings and told Joshua about what had happened to some of the others. He also apparently had a new squad.

George was back home in England. They'd exchanged letters and Joshua had offered to come by to see if there was anything his alchemy could do.

In canon FMA, this sort of healing needed a Philosopher's stone but as far as Joshua could guess, that was mostly because medical alchemy needed the boost. With the Alkahestry Joshua knew along with his access to Truth's knowledge, healing spinal paralysis wouldn't be that hard.

Louise was in yet another area of the Rhineland, he had a new squad too like Roy. He'd fully healed after the fight and he was truly thankful to Joshua.

Lastly, Roy had sent a note about the American God of War. He'd apparently returned to America. He wasn't part of the occupation for some reason. Joshua still didn't know what the deal was with him but it was just another curious note.

Months passed and Joshua was eventually recalled. The treaty had still yet to be signed but they wouldn't leave them out in the mud for that long.

Well, it wasn't that much mud. It was really just a lot of patrolling and talking to the natives. Joshua took the time to try and learn German and he… had kind of succeeded? It wasn't perfect, really it was only passable. He could have a conversation, but only a stilted one.

Anyway, he got back to England around halfway through November. There he made sure to formally retire.

Before that though, he headed to a military hospital to treat George. He had needed to get the order right as they might have not let him in as a civilian.

George smiled at him "Seems you figured out how to heal after all."

Joshua nodded "But I still ended up taking more lives than I saved. I still failed in that regard."

With a shake of his head, George refuted that "You've given your research to the military haven't you? Future combat medics will have the secrets you've discovered and those will help care for people."

Well, most of them. Some of his secrets he'd gained from the Truth and he didn't want to have to explain that part of his research.

"I guess." Joshua noted "But it still doesn't feel like it."

George shrugged "Well, we live and we learn. If you want, dedicate your lives to helping people or something like that. Maybe philanthropy?"

John had suggested something much the same all that time ago when Joshua had been going to war with them.

"Well." Joshua noted "That's for after I retire."

George smiled and pushed his legs over to the side. With Joshua's help, he slowly stood on the legs that had been paralysed an hour earlier.

"Let me walk you out." George offered.

He left the hospital and George returned to his room. The next stop then was where he could go to leave the army. He found the office and talked to the person he needed to talk to.

"We aren't at war anymore." Joshua noted "I was forced in because of it, but now I want to live a more peaceful life."

He was still a certified alchemist, but he didn't intend to look into any dangerous research that the military could weaponise so as long as he didn't create gold or humans they couldn't hold that over him either.

And so as of the 18th of November (The day after he got back) he was officially jobless again. He'd never been so happy to not be employed.

For the first time in months he felt safe playing with his Pokemon. It was a good thing that Pokeballs were able to feed their inhabitants, even if it wasn't the best. They kept Pokemon in a kind of suspended animation so they were fine after all these months.

He sat on a hill out in the middle of nowhere with them, camping out just like he'd done in their world. That was over two years ago now.

"Two years." Joshua remarked as he thought that "I'm getting old."

Not really. He was only twenty seven. He wouldn't be "old" for over a decade yet.

"Well." he continued to speak to the endless expanse of stars and to his Pokemon "I guess I can give philanthropy a go. I'll need to brush up on my French a bit. And my German."

When the night passed, he began the walk south. He'd need to catch a boat.

He took breaks as he travelled. It was getting quite cold so he spent the night wrapped up in his tent with his Pokemon around them. Ninetails was emitting a good amount of heat for the rest of them to stay toasty.

He eventually made it to Worthing but there weren't any good rates of travel from there to france so after helping out some locals in return for food and other supplies he began heading east towards Dover.

It was December by the time he reached Dover. Christmas decorations were going up, people were singing in the streets. Joshua took the time to help some more people out when they asked for his help and he was allowed to stay in a house overnight as a guest. That was a nice change from camping in the wilds.

In the morning, he boarded a boat for Calais in France, the ticket bought with some of the money he'd earned from helping people out.

He never made mention of his role in the war. To the people he helped, he was just an unknown stranger that was still helping them out after the war. Human kindness was all that was required for that sort of thing.

Boarding the ship, he looked south-east. Surely this philanthropy thing wouldn't be too hard, right?

Spoiler: Author Notes

Yeah, 12 wasn't full length. I did make it a bit longer than I originally planned to though. I'm a bit amused that the next chapter will be about being a philanthropist over the Christmas period but it was how the story worked out.
Not long now before the end of this Jump. It wasn't the most fun to write but it was interesting nonetheless.
When will the next chapter be? Probably not next Monday as that's Christmas Day but I'll see if I can get it up at some point in the next two weeks at least.

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

Philanthropy wasn't hard, speaking French was.

Like most people, Joshua had taken French in school. Along with that was about half a year of Spanish and about four sessions of Japanese. The problem was that it was so long ago from his perspective that he remembered very little of any of it.

"Ah… Jue… How do I say this again?" He muttered as he looked at a phrasebook.
He couldn't just trust that they knew English, he needed to speak in their own language.

He was walking down a street in Dunkirk after having walked from Calais. He didn't really have a solid plan other than "Walk through eastern France, Belgium and Germany while doing what he could for those disadvantaged."

As he glanced around, he saw a family wrapped up in blankets and sitting, and shivering, in an alley.

Without saying anything, Joshua grabbed a handful of grass from the side of the street, clapped and alchemically began converting.

Grass to Flour. Flour to Bread.

It wasn't nice. The books he had read in the Academy called it "Alchemist Rations." and it was closer to some kind of ship's biscuit than any 'normal' bread. He handed it to the family as he made a few more loaves.

They looked at him with thankful eyes as he tried to solve the greater problem.

He flipped through his phrasebook as he looked for a way to ask his question.

"Où est ta… maison?"

The mother looked up and began to speak but Joshua shook his head.

"Je ne connais pas le français, s'il vous plaît pointez?"

The father then stood up, leaving his blanket behind and waving for Joshua to follow. He eventually led him to a small house. Next to the house was a small sign. Joshua took some time to translate.

"For sale." He muttered "But you probably didn't sell it right?"

The father nodded, understanding the gist of what Joshua had said.

Then it was probably repossessed due to a loan or something like that. In that case…

Okay, how could he do this legally?

He went to buy some coal, followed all the time by the father. Taking it back to the family he clapped.

Coal to Graphite (And impurities). Impurities in the forms of Sulfur and Nitrogen to Tetrasulfur tetranitride.

He stored the orange crystals away inside his alchemy case. He was collecting a lot of things as waste products. There was also a slight sulphur smell in the air, he must have missed some of it. Ah well, in these amounts it wouldn't really hurt and it was no worse for the environment than just burning the coal.

Okay, now. Graphite to Diamonds. He clapped.

Even with alchemy, gemstones hadn't lost their value. Or at least, most of them hadn't. While any alchemist that had studied crystals and carbon could do this, most didn't. While it wasn't banned like gold, most alchemists wouldn't really see diamonds as worth much.

Normal people on the other hand…

He pressed the small handful of diamonds into the father's hand and then flipped through the phrasebook again.

"Vendez-les, trouvez un abri pour l'hiver."

He left as the father ran off, hopefully he'd be able to make enough from those diamonds to live properly.

He continued down the road.

Five more days took him to Brussels. He'd stopped to help people as much as he could along the way and the alchemical byproducts of each bit of help was now kept in his case.

From there as a central base, he began to cross Belgium and France.

Joshua visited battlefields and saw the after effects of the war. Ground torn up by artillery, grass entirely wiped out, hills and valleys formed from the ravages of war.

He tried to put as much right as he could. He could replicate an entire team of workmen when it came to moving earth.

Fixing the ground itself would take more time though. Time, fertiliser and plenty of poppy seeds.

As he returned from another trip to a battlefield, he saw the date. It was the 23rd, Christmas Eve eve.

He'd been staying around different houses with each return to Brussels. He'd come, help them with some chore and they'd put him up for a night out of kindness. But what sort of chore would he need to do to join a Christmas dinner?

Or did he even want to? It was sacred in a way, not in a religious sense but in the sense that if he were to intrude on another family's dinner then it would be something terrible.

He smiled sadly. This would be the first proper Christmas he'd experienced since leaving his own world. Sure, one had passed while in the world of Final Fantasy 5 but it didn't count, no one in that world celebrated it specifically and the world had ended by that point so it wasn't very cheerful anyway.

Here though, people were celebrating, the war was over at last. Didn't he want to celebrate too?

It took him most of the next day to set his plan up. He used the funds he'd been able to gather and sold much of his alchemic supplies to get what he'd need. He spoke to the homeless that had gathered in brussels and asked them to meet him in a specific place outside of town.

As the sky grew dark on Christmas eve, he alchemically created a great earthworks oven, sterilised it and created a work surface.

Around the oven, the homeless began to gather seeking warmth and comfort on the holy night.

Joshua worked by the light of candles as he prepared stuffing and the small plucked chickens he'd been able to buy cheaply enough.

When each was done, he'd put them in the oven to roast. When they were all in, he spoke to the homeless that had gathered.

"This is an important night, and I want to make sure that all of you eat tonight. Chicken, Gravy and cheap bread is all I can offer, but I hope it will be to your satisfaction."

There was a cheer at that and people made small fires around the great oven to sit by and rest at. With them all around, the night wasn't as cold.

Joshua walked from fire to fire, speaking to the people that had gathered. They all had good things to say. That might have been just because he was feeding them though.

He met some soldiers from the war, who had come home to no home at all.

He met some families that had lost important members of their family in the war and now had no way of making money to keep their homes.

He met children who had lost their parents in the war.

He might not be able to save all of them, but for these precious hours he would do what he could for them.

As the chickens were finishing up, he took them out and called to everyone. He made plates out of Alchemist's rations and loaded them up with slices of chicken and stuffing. Over that he poured gravy made from the leftover juices from the chicken.

People came and ate gratefully and Joshua showed them how he'd made these bread plates able to fold without breaking. That had taken some practice while travelling but they basically acted like crumbly wraps now. Crumbly, unless hydrated with some liquid like gravy.

The food might have been only a small portion of what people at home were having but to these people that didn't have a home it was everything. They talked and laughed over the most filling meal that most had probably eaten in weeks.

Finally the last chicken was out of the oven and served to the few stragglers who had come late. The final person to be served ultimately was Joshua himself.

There was no reason to keep the oven on anymore, but nor was there any need to save fuel in this case. Joshua opened the oven wide and let the heat flow through the field they all sat in.

He wanted to make a speech, but he still didn't know enough French or German to be able to make one well. Instead he simply held up his wrap.

"To people and to peace!"

They echoed it back to him as he sat down on an alchemically created stall to eat in peace.

He had one more thing to plot. How could he give all of these people a Christmas present tomorrow?

He couldn't just give them all diamonds, that would actually crash the market. Probably. Either way, no jeweller would buy all of those diamonds. No, he couldn't give them anything with a monetary value. It needed to be something emotional.

People started to go to sleep around the fires as the night deepened. Joshua sighed and stood up to slowly walk between the groups.

He used Alkahestry to diagnose the problems they had and then put them to right again. This gift, the gift of health, was probably the best that he could give in this situation.

Finally though he was exhausted by his work. He lay down on the ground in front of the now sputtering oven to rest.

He dreamed of a park. The park, Hyde park. Where this had all started.

The woman from so long ago, the god that called herself Elpis appeared to him.

She didn't say anything. She just smiled.

Joshua's dream likely meant nothing. Elpis was dead as far as she'd told him.

Even so, when he woke up, Joshua felt warm.

The first light of day poked above the horizon and Joshua sat up. There was something beside him that hadn't been there when he'd gone to sleep.

A metal box the size of a large chair. Moving it would be tricky though. What even was it.

At his touch, the box opened. It was a box of supplies. A box with everything he might need. Precious metals, chemicals and even some common materials. Everything he might need in alchemy.

Had… had Truth sent him a Christmas present? Joshua's knife was glowing softly so… maybe? He still didn't fully understand what it meant. Even so… good lord this would be tricky to transport.

Well, he could probably fit it in his adventurer's backpack or in his little cut out space but the former wouldn't remove the weight and the latter was tethered to this world exclusively.

…He'd have to use both.

Unzipping the backpack he'd gained back in his first world as far as it would go, he moved the supply crate into the backpack with the help of his pokemon.

Now the backpack weighed over 150kg more, Joshua got help from his pokemon to drop it into the tear. He could get it out again when he had to jump to another world.

Until then though, Joshua had more good will to spread.

Spoiler: Author Notes

Happy new year! And a late merry Christmas.
The FMA Jump's Box of Compounds is great, the only problem is it's a metal box the size of a small couch. Either way, it makes a good Christmas present for Joshua.
Next chapter will probably have our 100,000th word in it. Exciting. And a good chance for me to drop a lore bomb on Joshua.
And on you all if you want, because remember:

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.

 

[Ame]

That was a very good update. Thank you.

 

[boyboy180]

Boxing day, nineteen-eighteen.

Joshua sat on a broken wall in Brussels with a newspaper in his hands. He was all-but broke again.

Well, it was for a good purpose so it wasn't a problem. He could still mooch off people by doing their chores for them after all.

He flipped a page of the newspaper. He couldn't really read it, it wasn't in English or in the bits and pieces of French and German he knew so it was more that he was just looking at the pictures.

Besides, with his new semi-portable alchemic resource station, he had unlimited money… at least if he wasn't afraid to get accused of creating gold to sell.

He wasn't creating it with alchemy at least. That was kind of an improvement. It should be noted though that with the combination of "All of the world's alchemical knowledge" and "All of the elements useful in alchemy" combined to give him an immense amount of power if he really wanted it.

Well, he was still bound by his promise to Truth. He could at least make better tasting foods now though. If he got out his bag, he could set up something like a portable stove and he could basically just alchemy-up some raw foods and eat. They never tasted right though. Culinary alchemy was a deep art indeed.

Hmm.

He flipped another page of the newspaper and was surprised to see what was in the picture. It was the american that gave him such a strange feeling. What was his name again? It was something that sounded overdramatic wasn't it?

Jake Christ, that was it.

And yes, his name was mentioned in the text, but Joshua couldn't make out what it was talking about. He gave the picture a closer look as he reached for his phrase book to begin doing some rough translations.

In the picture, Jake was stepping out of a plane onto a set of stairs. He was waving in the direction of the photographer with a smirk on his face. The smirk didn't seem malicious, but something more like pride. He was proud to be doing… whatever it was he was doing.

Let's see…

"De Amerikaanse oorlogsheld stelt zich kandidaat."

…Wait, that wasn't French. Those words sounded German but…

Oh drat, he'd bought the Dutch newspaper again. He didn't have a phrasebook for Dutch. He had forgotten it was a language when he had started travelling. His French had helped as it was spoken fairly commonly throughout Belgium but it wasn't the only large language.

Okay, let's break this down.

"De Amerikaanse." The American, maybe? "Oorlogsheld" No idea. "stelt zich kandidaat"

Something about… a nothing candidate?

Joshua sighed and went looking for a French version of the newspaper so he could use his phrasebook.

"Le héros de guerre américain se présente aux élections"

Here, same story title but in French.

The heroes… something… American… something… elections?

Phrase book, where are you? Ah, here we go.

"The American war hero runs for office."

…Well. Okay then. I mean he had that sort of emotion control thing so it made sense. Joshua didn't remember the event very well since he'd wanted to get away from it so much.

The idea that America was allowing someone with actual mind control powers to be in charge was amusing but there was something… were his powers actually derived from this world's magic or were they just freakishly strong Charisma?

Oh, if this is meant to be a piece of media, is he the secret villain that will be pulling the strings when WW2 comes about? Joshua hoped not.

Anyway, Joshua continued translating Jake was apparently trying to become the PoTUS. Joshua didn't know his American history at all so he had no idea who was meant to be in power between the first and second world war. Maybe it had been a war hero like this?

Well, it didn't really matter.

Joshua stored the paper away and got down to helping people. He helped with chores of course but he was also an excellent repairman due to his alchemy.

Everything in the universe had an alchemic recipe and by doing a quick mental look up he could find what it was. Car? Fixed. Lamppost? Fixed. A woman's broken necklace? Fixed.

He was doing quite well for himself as the new year approached. He also needed to finally head to Berlin. He wanted to help out around there too, make sure they aren't suffering too hard.

He didn't remember when the Treaty of Versailles was signed in his world but here it would probably be signed within a few months at least. Those debts levied on Germany would be the cause of disaster and he couldn't do much about it.

On the second of January though, Joshua got an odd message. A letter arrived for him from overseas. He lacked a permanent address but the mail service was still able to get it to him.

Joshua pulled out a small pocket knife he'd created with alchemy during his European goodwill tour and ran it across the top of the letter to open it. He pulled out the trifold letter and opened it.

"Dear Joshua.
We haven't spoken since the war and I feel like there is something we need to discuss. I will be arriving in Brussels in a few days. The information is attached below this message. While you are not required to meet me there, I would prefer you would see me."

Below that was the information of his flight. Beneath that was one more note.

"I anticipate our meeting will be interesting.
Jake Christ."

…What?

Why? Why would he want to talk to Joshua?

The dread set in softly. The fear of being controlled like he was in the past, back in his homeworld.

The thoughts circled around Joshua's head as the days passed before the meeting came.

Would he go? He didn't want to, but did that mean he shouldn't?

Joshua thought about cutting his philanthropy off early, just cutting and running to escape the meeting. He held his ground though.

It was very clear that Jake wasn't normal, maybe if he understood in what way Jake wasn't normal, it would be helpful in future worlds too.

Right?

Or was this some aftereffect of Jake's power that made him think the meeting was a good idea?

The paranoia about his own mind was awful.

He tried to put it out of his mind as he worked. He took trips out of Brussels to other places around Belgium to do work. Each time though he returned to Brussels. It was like he was running away and coming back to the very thing that scared him.

Was this any way to exist? Couldn't he just make a choice? At thoughts like that he'd just snap to one option or the other. Attending or fleeing, doing so though would then start him second guessing himself.

…Amusingly, some studies of the Dutch language were able to distract him from thinking about the looming meeting, right up until the day came.

When he realised the day had come, he rushed out of bed, thanked the family that had been renting him the room so cheaply and dashed out.

There wasn't an airport in Brussels at this time, what there were though was a lot of flat fields that could be used for takeoff and landing.

The plane appeared in the sky at just past eleven AM and already it was descending.

You watched it wheel around in the sky for a bit before lining up with the wind and settling down on the field.

A man recognisable as Jake Christ sighed as he took off his helmet and stepped out of the two-seater aircraft.

"Finally." He muttered before looking around and catching sight of Joshua.

He nodded and walked over "Hello Joshua, please ignore any tiredness. I haven't slept in over a day. A sixteen hour flight from Canada to Ireland- that's the new world record apparently. Then a much shorter flight from there to here."

Joshua nodded, already feeling a strange pull as Jake talked.

"You wanted to see me about something?"

"Yes." Jake nodded "There's a long talk we should have had earlier, but I was a little busy until now."

"Campaigning." Joshua nodded with a raised eyebrow "Aren't elections every four years?"

"How would you forget that sort of thing?" Jake laughed for a moment before answering properly "Yes, I need to wait for next year to get elected properly. But I'll be taking Warren's spot."

What? Who? No, it didn't matter to Joshua.

"So did you not bring any guards?" Joshua quizzically asked.

Jake shrugged "I don't really need them. My pilot is a guard and some more arrived by ship weeks ago but I told them it wasn't necessary."

…He still rubbed Joshua the wrong way.

"Speaking of them though-" Jake noticed something behind Joshua and Joshua turned to see a car driving up the field "Here's my ride to the hotel I've booked a stay at for a few nights. Come on now."

He just walked up to the car as it parked, as if expecting Joshua to just follow.

..He did, but that wasn't the point.

They got in the car together. It was being driven by someone who looked like your stereotypical bodyguard and he drove them back towards Brussels.

"So…" Joshua asked, a slightly awkward feeling gnawing at him "What brought you to politics?"

"It was always a part of my plan." Jake replied slightly cryptically "I won't be around long enough to help in what comes next after all."

What comes next? No, Joshua would ask about something else.

"Are you sick?"

"Something like that." Jake chuckled "But it won't be anything to hard my career."

At that he turned and knocked on the window between the passenger section and the driver "You hear that? Don't spread rumours."

"...of course sir." The driver noted in a tone that denoted some kind of awe.

"And you?" Jake turned to Joshua "I've heard you took up philanthropy?"

Joshua gave a shrug "I hurt a lot of people, I might as well give something back to them."

"They're Germans." Jake waved his hand dismissively "They started all of this, after what you said before I looked into it more and it was all their fault."

"This is not Germany." Joshua reminded him "This is Belgium. I'm going to Germany later."

"And," Jake began, catching on the first thing he had said "Did you personally do anything to harm Belgium?"

Joshua shook his head "I don't need to hurt people to want to help them after a war."

He sighed as if it was Joshua who was missing some sort of point as he looked out the window.

The car drove into Brussels and to a particularly fancy hotel.

He asked for Joshua's help in bringing things up to his room and Joshua agreed. They rode up an elevator to the penthouse suite, or the closest thing this hotel had to one.

Jake sighed as he entered "Good enough, I was worried. This hotel is one of the best from what I've been told. Excellent furnishings, fine dining…" he paused and glanced knowingly at Joshua "and a completely soundproofed suite."

…Oh. So the thing he wanted to talk about was that private.

Joshua nodded.

"Okay, what did you want to talk about?"

Jake waved his hand towards one of the suite's sofas and Joshua sit down with a raised eyebrow.

Jake sighed and looked dead at Joshua.

"You're not from this world, are you?"

…what?

"What do you mean 'this world'?" Joshua played dumb but Jake just shook his head.

"My benefactor told me about you, you're a wanted man you know?"

…What?

Jake drew out a Spell Engine from his coat and Joshua froze. He was armed.

Joshua went for his knife, summoning it behind his back. If this became a fight he'd need to be ready.

"Your benefactor?" Joshua pried "Who's that?"

"Oh, no one you'd know. But she knows a renegade when she sees one."

A Renegade. What Arceus and The Truth had called him. Jake was aware of other worlds. That explained all his strange actions that didn't quite make sense.

He wasn't from this world either!

Jake pointed at Joshua.

"Now, I think I'll kill you for the bounty."

And he swung a punch at Joshua who leaped to the side. Was this to be a fight to the death then?

Spoiler: Author Notes

And here we have the penultimate chapter of this arc and the chapter that brings us up to 100k words. Well, probably slightly beyond it actually. 101k maybe? Either way, the lore drop I promised to give Joshua was that other people like him existed. People who travelled between worlds. In case it wasn't blindingly obvious, Jake Christ is a Jumper.
Next time: More Lore Bombs. And the term "Jumper" will finally be explained to him.

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-PSVtxOdp0

Jake sprung forward as Joshua dodged the first fist and Joshua noticed him reaching for a cane he'd been wearing at his belt.

To dodge the cane as it swung up, Joshua rolled back over the sofa in the room and readied his knife. Jake stepped up onto the seat and jumped over, flipping and spinning a kick into where Joshua's head had been a moment ago. Joshua flung himself out of the way though, letting his instincts take the lead.

He'd fought monsters before and Jake's apparently superhuman strength made it a fair comparison.

Joshua clapped his hands and slammed them into the floor, Alchemy wouldn't be his weapon but it was his way out. The floor grew, pulling mass from elsewhere in the building and rocketing him up towards the roof where another clap of his hands allowed him to break free.

Moments after he stumbled onto the roof though, Jake burst after him by performing what would have been a five or so meter high standing jump. Not that Joshua knew the exact details but that was something approaching three times the modern world record.

"You're a tricky one!" Jake called with a laugh as he waved around his walking cane "The trickiest fight I've had in this world- and that's saying something."

Joshua didn't reply at first, he was looking for an opening. Jake was armed and had truly superhuman strength. Joshua remembered fighting monsters in final fantasy and he tried to remember how to deal with monsters that were strong and against whom magic couldn't be used.

Leave it to Sabin. His mind recalled and he groaned at how unhelpful that wa.

On that subject, how would Sabin's strength compare to Jake…?

Hmm… about equal? Joshua couldn't tell for sure. It wasn't like Jake was giving him a chance to use the scientific method.

Jake charged at him, Joshua had waited for too long. Once again he clapped his hands, ready to use alchemy. He paused before touching anything though. No. The plan he'd had would count as using alchemy as a weapon.

He dodged another seemingly wild swing from Jake but then realised what Jake was doing. Joshua was being crowded towards the edge of the building. Jake was forcing him to chose between fighting and falling.

"Stop running away, Renegade!" Jake called "Your crimes are at an end."

Joshua gritted his teeth. All in.

His knife ready, he dashed forward. Jake took it to be a proper fight and readied himself. Joshua instead clapped again and slid low. As he did he used the same circle he'd been planning to use earlier, he slicked the ground. A smooth surface (easily created with alchemy) plus moisture from the air. His lips grew dry as he slid under Jake and clapped again, flipping the roof's surface around to launch him back to his feet and around at Jake's back to get an opening.

This whole manoeuvre had been done in a tiny fraction of time but Jake was already turning to intercept the blow. It wasn't just his strength that was superhuman, it was his agility too. How was he doing it? Were these powers like Joshua had been collecting?

Before asking that, Joshua kicked to the side again to get away from close range. Now he had more of the building to work with though.

"Who are you?" Joshua demanded properly this time "Why are you so strong?"

Jake smiled "The same way you could if you made smarter purchases, I picked up 'Miracle.' It's a perk that lets me draw power from the faith of others, and as I am basically a living saint to the people of this world…"

Perks? Were those what they were called? And what did he mean about Joshua making smarter purchases?

No, he could ask those questions after he had won. He draws power from faith? There was nothing Joshua could really do about that right now. It was effectively a statement of fact for this fight.

"Jake is stronger than I am." or something like that. And faster, with better reaction times and with a crazy high jump height. Physically he was Joshua's superior in just about every way.

He wasn't using his Spell Engine though… could he not use it?

There, if Joshua could get his hand on that Spell Engine then this entire fight could be turned around!

Joshua went low again, but Jake was ready for the slide this time. Luckily Joshua wasn't stupid enough to try the same trick twice. Instead his posture was so that when he dodged to the right, Jake wouldn't be able to reach him with the swing of his cane. That cane had hit the floor a few times by this point and it looked to be getting quite damaged.

The dodge also put Joshua close to the Spell Engine, He clapped and reached up. He refused to use Alchemy to hurt someone but to disarm someone?

Truth? Would it be okay?

Joshua converted the sweat that had been dripping down Jake's arm into a super slippery oil. With a quick shoulder check that got the Spell Engine flying out of his grip.

Both of them turned and dived after the Spell Engine. Joshua used alchemy to give himself a spring board as he reached for it while Jake just ran after it.

Jake got to it first but it slipped from his hand again. Reaching it just after it slipped free, Joshua converted the oil that had gotten onto the engine into vapour and dodged away. Jake was right on top of him though and the only way to escape was off the roof.

It was do or die time.

Joshua could increase his physical abilities, they wouldn't quite match Jake's but with the spell boosting him, he could surely use the Sparkblade to inflict some serious injuries.

There was always the risk that he wasn't fast enough though and Jake could kill him just like that- breaking through his shield and his skeleton in one heavy blow.

There was one more problem. Even if Joshua got the perfect angle…

He froze and as Jake rushed in at him, he leaped off the roof. As he fell, he enchanted his clothing. Not quite a flight spell but close enough. With this high-grade Spell Engine, his spell was even more effective than he would have guessed. He flew up after a moment, hovering out of reach off the edge of the building.

Joshua couldn't kill Jake.

Not due to any lack of ability, but because he'd made the choice not to kill anyone.

"Stop this." Joshua called out from his spot in the air "I don't want to fight you, I don't want to kill you."

"You wouldn't be able to anyway!" Jake pointed at him "If you leave, there'll be a manhunt for you. You'll never find peace in this world, I promise you that."

"Then I'll go!" Joshua replied "I'll leave!"

"No you ain't." Jake yelled back "My benefactor told me that's when you do the most damage. You ain't leaving this world alive!"

That was what it was about then? The same as Arceus.

"I'm just trying to protect your home-"

"You don't have a home! You're a renegade!" Jake objected but Joshua shut him up

"I did have a home, but it was ruined by invaders from another world, like you and your benefactor maybe?!"

You have to wonder what the normal people of the city thought, hopefully few to none of them spoke English.

Jake paused for a moment at Joshua's outburst though.

"What happened?"


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCcmb2K0MH4

And so Joshua told him the story. At some point the fight had ended. Joshua repaired some of the damage with alchemy as he told it.

Finally Jake sat back on the sofa they'd leaped over at the start of the fight and sighed.

"Shit. I kind of get it now. If that had happened to my world, I'd be doing the same."

He'd probably be worse actually.

Joshua nodded "I have to go, I'm collecting power to take back my world to save it."

Jake shook his head "Leave it to the professionals."

"What, like you?"

Jake had admitted, while Joshua was telling his story, that this was actually his first "Jump." That's also apparently what the term was. You "Jump" between worlds. That made someone like Jake a "Jumper."

Since this was Joshua's third world (Other than his homeworld which apparently wasn't counted) he actually had more experience than Jake.

Jake had shrugged at the question.

"Sure? I could probably get around to it in a few jumps. I've got… five or so years left in this Jump and my benefactor would send me to a world with strong enough powers to stand against whatever the invading force was. Comic books maybe? Give me twenty five years and I can have your world free."

Twenty five years? Joshua had taken almost three years so far and already it felt too long. He wanted to be done before a generation passed.

"No." Joshua refused "I'd accept your help but I want this done sooner rather than later. I'll keep doing it my way."

Jake sighed and looked up at the roof.

"Hey, Thihena, can we give him the benefit of the doubt for now? I'll kill him the next time I run into him. That cool with you?"

There was a pause and you watched as burning writing appeared in the air beside him. Joshua could read backwards that well so he couldn't see all of what it said but it looked something like… "Fine but you…" something something. Apparently whoever Thihena was had allowed it.

Jake looked down and grinned "Good news, you're not dying today. Bad news, you're dying in a few years time. If you don't die sooner of course."

Joshua groaned but accepted it.

He had a few more things he wanted to ask before leaving though.

"So how does the whole Benefactor-Jumper thing work? Why do you need to stay here five more years, is becoming a president important."

"Nah." Jake shook his head "It's just how it works for us. We spend ten years in each world. Apparently there's a point to it but I don't see it."

Joshua blinked "Wait, so you've already been here for five years? I've only been here for one."

Jake nodded "I know, I mean, my benefactor didn't notice anything up at first. She couldn't tell there was anything up with you until you started breaking out that clapping Alchemy near the end. Up until then you just looked like a normal person to her."

"And that's… odd?" Joshua asked.

Jake nodded "Normally, according to my benefactor when she was explaining it to me, all Jumpers enter a given world at the same time. It's some sort of agreement thing so that none of them gets a leg up on others. Your strange method of travel breaks that rule it seems. Plus, Jumpers know each other through their benefactors. You being so stealthy was unusual too, it's what made my benefactor go looking for you in the Renegade Records."

"The what?"

"The Renegade Records is an information network that various Benefactors keep up to keep track of people like you who disrupt normal Jumps. Apparently some strange Llama creature put you into the records a few years ago."

Huh. Arceus had snitched on him. Well it made sense. He had been serious about Joshua having to stop.

There was more that Joshua would have wanted to know, but he had a good outline of how things worked now. It still raised the question of what exactly the Corporation which attacked his homeworld was. If he remembered correctly, Arceus had described their members as "Like Benefactors and Jumpers" but had never actually said they were those things.

Either way, that was a mystery for later. For now… well, it was time to try to aim for Harry Potter again. It hadn't worked last time, hopefully it will work this time though.

That said, he didn't really know where he was anymore. He was a bit lost. Hopefully he'd be able to find something to act as a landmark.

He cut open his pocket space and lugged his absurdly heavy backpack out of that space. From one point of view, the backpack was all he needed but the fact that it didn't reduce weight was a problem.

…The bags in Harry Potter did reduce weight, right? He wasn't misremembering that?

"Did you ever read Harry Potter?" Joshua looked back at Jake who was smirking at the effort it took to lift the bag.

Jake shook his head "Nah, I watched the movies though."

"Do you remember if their 'bigger on the inside bags' made things weigh less too?"

"I haven't the foggiest." He admitted "I wasn't that much of a fan."

Well there went that way of checking. Well, hopefully they did.

Joshua cut a tear into space and lifted the bag through before jumping through himself.

"Goodbye Jake!" He called as he sealed the hole "I hope we don't meet again!"

Jake's laughter was the last thing he heard as the tear was closed up.

And then Joshua was in the void. A destination awaited, but where?

Spoiler: Author Notes

And that's the third jump done. It's getting close to a year since this quest started and we're only finishing the third Jump? Wow, I expected this to be much quicker. We're still in what I'm calling the "first arc." That said, at least Joshua knows what's going on now.

As this is the end of a world, I'm really encouraging people to chat about it. What was good, what was bad? What should I keep in mind going forward? And yes, what jump do you want to see next?

Current top picks:
Harry Potter (As it's Joshua's intention to go there)
Mother/Earthbound (A good suggestion made after the end of the previous world)

 

[Ramirlareel1]

I'm going to have to say I would vote for Harry Potter or maybe fairy tale. I always liked how fanon uses the Archive Magic in Fairy Tail. When I think of road to power and Magic my first thought is the Archive Magic from Fairy Tail . Of course I probably read one too many good Fanfictions with that as the center.

Maybe I missed something when you're writing but did we ever get a good explanation for what kind of "power" so to speak is in the dagger? You said truth took some of the power from the dagger. It's going to be a burr under my foot until I understand the value of that.

 

[boyboy180]

Maybe I missed something when you're writing but did we ever get a good explanation for what kind of "power" so to speak is in the dagger? You said truth took some of the power from the dagger. It's going to be a burr under my foot until I understand the value of that.

Click to shrink...

Out of universe explanation since it spoils less: It's where Joshua's CP is stored, the points spent to acquire stuff in jumps. Back in Pokemon, you could also notice that the blade glowed when he got his starter pokemon. CP expended in order to force the world to satisfy his purchases or used to gain new powers comes out of the blade. How does it get in the blade? That touches on spoilers.

In truth's case, CP was traded to pay the cost to acquire the perk.

 

[boyboy180]

Just a small bump to get more feedback/suggestions. And because I forgot to reply to this point before:

I'm going to have to say I would vote for Harry Potter or maybe fairy tale. I always liked how fanon uses the Archive Magic in Fairy Tail. When I think of road to power and Magic my first thought is the Archive Magic from Fairy Tail . Of course I probably read one too many good Fanfictions with that as the center.

Click to shrink...

I am interested in jumping Fairy Tail, though it has killed chains of mine before (I used to write chains just for me, this is the first public one).
In previous chains, I think the problem was I was trying to come at the entire setting as a whole whereas if I came at it in this chain, Joshua would probably just hold up in a random town and see what living in the setting was like.

(And of course, he'd get dragged into something. This is a story meant for entertainment after all)

Archive magic, hmm? It's not my favourite really even if I can imagine uses for it. Maker magic might be useful (Memory make is really useful for a Jumper who sees a lot of strange things) but if Joshua went to Fairy tail next, he'd probably just aim for requip magic as a way to store all his stuff in an easier way.

 

[boyboy180]

So, everyone. It's time for the next roll for the world.
As per normal, Harry Potter is the primary target cluster

The roll to try and hit the Cluster:

1d100 result: 23

Click to shrink...

A hit! Woo!

Now, the HP cluster is about 3/4ths fanfic by volume so I've got to hope I don't hit one of them. I mean, some of them will still have undectable expansion charms to make a storage case.

Right.

Rolling

Random World result: 8

Click to shrink...

...Hmm. I don't like that jump. Not because any of the content it is based on, but because the author's perk pricing is all over the place. I think I'll just use another HP jump and pick the right time period.

That's a clue, look forward to the first chapter to get the answer.

 

[boyboy180]

Colours and space twisted together yet again. He'd never really get used to this, not really.

An infinite number of finite stars, or a finite number of infinite stars. The space defied reason. No, in truth it wasn't "space" at all. It was… something else. To define it as space with simple axes of movement was wrong.

Mass didn't lose meaning though: he fell, the massive weight of his equipment falling with him. This was his chance, he needed to get somewhere which had a way to store things better. If he didn't he may need to leave something behind next time.

Using his too-heavy bag to alter his center of mass, he directed himself around to look for constellations. He knew roughly what "Looks like magic" and more specifically what worlds like the Harry Potter world looked like.

His memory was much better after the most recent push so his bag took him towards a good looking cluster.

Joshua didn't know if it was the same cluster as before, but it looked familiar. He could certainly feel that "The boy who lived" was in some of them.

Annoyingly though, it wasn't one of them he got caught in the orbit of. He'd slid slightly too far to one side.

He spun around the last world in this small collection, trying to use his bag to adjust himself out of the orbit but he just kept spiralling down.

He still wasn't sure about this world so he didn't cut into it, not immediately. Instead he just landed on the surface of the "Sphere."

The world, most worlds actually, were something like glass spheres containing a molten core of golden or rainbow-hued light. It was the same sort of shine his sparkblade would sometimes show. Was it the shine of creation? Or some kind of projection upon the world? He didn't know the metaphysics of how this really worked.

Once he'd cut in, the world would resolve into its true form, but before he did that, he looked through the glass. Maybe he'd see… something? Anything?

As he looked though, he felt some sort of pressure and looked up. A figure, a divine figure that reminded him of the woman he'd met who'd given him the sparkblade in the first place. That was who stood high above him.

"Trespasser!" She boomed down, readying some kind of attack in her hand "Renegade!"

Quickly, Joshua cut in and sealed the hole behind him in a quick motion as he stumbled into somewhere that looked like a bar or tavern. Luckily it was mostly empty other than a grumpy looking man at the desk who was quite surprised when he saw the air split apart and out a man and a backpack that broke a chair as it fell onto it.

When the man recovered, he snarled "Who are you?"

Joshua checked for injuries and checked the rip was closed properly before looking over at him.

"My apologies. I didn't intend to arrive like that. Where am I, actually?"

The man snorted "You'll be paying for that broken chair, but to answer your question you've arrived at the Hog's Head Inn."

"Ah." Joshua nodded "Right area then, at least. I'm sorry though, I don't have any money on me."

The barman groaned "Well, it was only two Galleons. What's your name?"

"Joshua." as he gave it, the man raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything about it at first, instead asking.

"So, Joshua, what were you doing appearing in my pub like that? Tell me the story and I won't charge you.;"

Joshua nodded, lifting up his bag with a groan. He couldn't hide it until he was out of sight though. As he began to talk though, he noticed his sparkblade was glowing.

"To make a long story short, my life was at risk and I had the choice between cutting through to somewhere random or possibly getting killed."

"Were you attacked?" The barman asked with a raised eyebrow and Joshua shrugged

"Something like that."

The man sat back and sighed.

"If it were You-Know-Who or 'is followers… nah. Sorry, forgot I said anything."

Joshua just nodded and hauled the backpack up again.

"What have you got in that bag though?" The man asked a different question and Joshua shrugged.

"Supplies, mostly. I've been travelling."

"Travelling?" The man parroted, slightly suspicious "Around where?"

"Here and there." Joshua noted before continuing "France and Belgium mostly. This is my first time back in England for… a few months? I think? What's the date?"

"The first of September."

Joshua whistled "Nine months? I really lost track."

He hadn't of course, this must be another strange time shift.

The man shrugged "Have you heard any news during your travels?" His voice dipped lower as he asked "Like anything You-Know-Who's been up to?"

Joshua just shook his head "I didn't run into anything that tipped my off at least, I'm sorry."

The man simply nodded "Well Joshua, I wish you well."

"The same to you." Joshua noted as he hauled the backpack towards the door. He did turn though before he left.

"I never asked your name?"

The man nodded and answered.

"I am Dumbledore."

Joshua blinked.

"As in the-"

"No." The man cut him off and corrected "Aberforth Dumbledore."

Ah.

"Fair enough then Aberforth." Joshua nodded "Good luck to you in your endeavours."

And he continued to drag the bag outside. Night had fallen out here but Joshua didn't really know what time it was.

He'd arrived where he'd planned to but-

"Wait a moment!" He heard Aberforth call out from inside "Is this yours?"

Joshua turned as he saw Aberforth had come out from behind the counter and was holding up a wand. Joshua blinked.

Well, it couldn't be 'his' wand. He didn't have a wand. At the same time…

"Yes." he lied "Thank you."

Heading back inside, he took the wand and thanked Aberforth again.

"That bag's heavy, haven't you tried to lighten it with magic?" Aberforth asked as Joshua turned to leave again.

Joshua just shook his head "It's on my to-do list."

Before another word was said, Joshua was gone and into the night. Now though he had a wand in his hand. It was made of a cream-coloured wood but he couldn't tell anything more about it.

Maybe he could find its proper owner while he was here to acquire a wand of his own. He had no idea how to use this wand of course. While he could remember some stuff from the movies (Swish and flick) and the importance of enunciating properly, he didn't really "Know" magic.

Well, he'd have to experiment. And find a way to make money. A case with an undetectable extension charm probably wouldn't be free.

Hiding in an alley, Joshua cut a pocket space and dumped his backpack inside. All he kept out were his wand and his sparkblade along with some camping supplies.

The Hog's head was in Hogsmeade right? That meant Scotland, right?

It had been years since Joshua had really interacted with the Harry Potter series so he'd have to make a lot of guesses. Either way, the school year had likely just started. Which school year was a bit vague.

Once he found a Non-wizard newspaper, he could just check the year. He did have some clues though.

As a side note: he hated the term muggle in this context so he'd refer to them as simply "Non-wizards."

Anyway, his clues. From what Aberforth was saying, You-Know-Who was acting. That either meant it was the first wizarding war (The dates of which Joshua couldn't remember off the top of his head) or around the time of books five through seven. Those were… when was it again? Nineteen ninety something?

Well, he'd have a dark lord to dodge. Probably best to stay out of that whole thing really. Joshua had his own objectives. He wanted to learn at least a bit of the local magic and he wanted to get a travelling case.

The question was, was Joshua even a wizard? Because it was like an entire separate race thing. And he certainly wasn't born a wizard. Maybe the experiments done on him in Final Fantasy could help again?

Unclear. Hopefully he'd figure something out.

Until then though, Joshua tracked down the Hogsmeade train station and followed its rails out of town.

That would probably be the easiest way for him to get to London.

As he walked, his sparkblade glowed again and he found an unopened box of "Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans" by its light.

Huh, nice. That would help him pass the time at least.

He was really starting to notice the light by now. Whenever his sparkblade glowed, he'd find something useful.

…Could he prompt it to just give him an expanded case?

As the moon rose higher, Joshua set down to camp, he got out his supplies and set up the tent before lighting a fire. As he sat by the fire, he pondered, holding the sparkblade in his hands.

"Can you just give me a case?" He asked the blade which remained stubbornly silent as only an inanimate object could.

Now Joshua just felt a little silly.

Was the sparkblade aware? It seemed able to act on its own.

Sighing, Joshua got out the every flavour beans and tried one.

Hmm. Tomato, not bad really though he hadn't seen it before in this sort of thing. The next one he got was honey and the third…

He spat the flavour of grass out of his mouth and pulled out the lunchbox he'd gained years ago from that nurse joy. It still produced food once a day and he enjoyed the sandwich that was in there today.

After that, he looked up at the sky. How could he safely practise magic?

He could buy the school books for first year students at Hogwarts? That could work, even if it was a little strange for an adult to buy them after the school year had already started.

Plus, he'd need money. Could his sparkblade give him money?

The alternative would be to just experiment and see what worked but… that sounded like a good way to make something blow up, maybe his head if things went really wrong.

Well, he did have things to do. He released his pokemon out. They hadn't had a good stretch in months.

On the subject of things acquired previously, Joshua tried some alchemy. He gathered the ingredients for Alchemist's Bread from his storage box and clapped.

Lightning sparked out and he smiled as he realised he was still able to use alchemy. That said, he still didn't want to use it as a weapon. He had partially gotten over his horror at what he'd done back in Final Fantasy but not completely.

Ninetails came over to warm him as he looked up at the stars. He'd probably go hunting for food later. Maybe some small mammals. Hopefully he wasn't seen by non-wizards while doing that.

Dragonair seemed to enjoy the environment a lot more than she enjoyed the previous world war world's environment. Maybe there was a higher magic content or something? If there was, Joshua couldn't tell. His final fantasy magic still didn't work and he didn't have a spell engine to test if his "more normal" magic from the last world worked.

What was with him and constantly learning new magic systems that didn't work in other worlds. One of these days, he'd need to create some way to make them universally compatible. How he'd do it was a mystery but if he managed it… well, maybe it could give him enough power to deal with the people who attacked his Earth?

That was the hope at least.

As the fire sputtered low, Alakazam took over watching it as Joshua went to his tent. Thus passed the first day Joshua spent in the world he'd been looking for. May he find what he was searching for in this place.

Spoiler: Author Notes

And we're back. As I said in a post above, while this is set in the setting of the jump I rolled for, I'm not actually using that jump. Instead I'm using the "Wizarding World" jump. If anyone wants to guess the wood that Joshua's wand (and yes it is his wand, obtained from his sparkblade) is made of, I'll tell you if you're correct.

Feel free to comment if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

Joshua reminisced about the days he'd walked from London in the previous world as he headed south in the morning.

It was not "his" British isles, just as it hadn't been in the last world. He wondered how many differences between them existed. Did different caves run beneath the earth? Were the shorelines different? What about the creatures that lived here?

For that third point, there would almost certainly be some differences. After all, this was the Wizarding World. Any number of bizarre and terrible creatures lived on these british isles that didn't in any other world he'd visited.

Now, he didn't have to walk the whole way there. If he found a town, he could take the train. What about money? Well… He could use some alchemy to fake it. While he didn't know the exact makeup of a pound coin, all he needed was one and his collection of materials would allow him to make more.

Was it forgery? Yes. That was the only reason Joshua hadn't done it yet. It felt wrong and that was it.

The hike also gave him a chance to practise though. After night fell, he sat in camp and took out his wand.

Pointing it at a random stick, he swished it. Before he said anything (Or flicked the wand) sparks shot out and knocked the twig away.

How was this meant to work?

"Wingardium leviosa-" nothing happened that time even though he swished and flicked the wand to the best of his memory on how it was meant to look.

In his memory, the wand motion, the "Swish and flick" was something like drawing the letter u in cursive.

He kept trying and muttered under his breath with each failed attempt as his Pokemon watched on.

The wand worked, those sparks earlier were proof enough of that. So why wasn't the spell working?

What was the old meme from the movie again?

Something like "It's LeviOsa not LeviosA…" or something like that. But that is what Joshua was doing.

These faux-latin magic words were a nightmare.

This would be much easier with a teacher. He remembered the trick he'd picked up in Final Fantasy six, that trick where if he observed someone casting magic, he could copy it perfectly. Now he could understand that it was somehow just a better version of Strago's lore ability. That said, it wasn't useful without someone to copy off of.

He had supper (Every flavour beans and alchemist's bread) and started to wonder when he'd get to eat proper food again.

As he walked during the day, he tried to remember more first year spells. There was the unlocking spell or the light spell, neither of which seemed to need wand motions in the movies. If he just needed to focus on the vocal component, this may be more possible.

Setting down by the fire again on the next night, Joshua pulled out the wand again.

"Lumos."

Nothing. He'd pronounced it perfectly based on what he remembered and he couldn't remember any wand movements. Even the upgraded version in the first movie didn't have wand movements.

He sighed and used alchemy to make a quick wooden lock out of a nearby twig.

"Alohamora."

Nothing. As he tried to repeat it, a pittance of sparks shot out but didn't do anything.

So, these spells probably had wand motions and the movies just didn't care. Great. Okay then, how could he do this?

The only thing he settled on was that he'd need a book or a teacher to copy off. He wished his inherent ability to copy magic also allowed him to create it from nothing but so far that seemed impossible.

The next day, he continued his journey. He passed by Hadrian's wall and stopped there for a bit. He walked beside the wall, looking for the main area of it that he remembered from a trip with his family many years ago.

He remembered standing in the ruined fort and was looking for the same spot to reminisce about his past. After a ways of travelling though and finding nothing, he made for London again.

He came to a motorway, the A69 if the signs were accurate.From there he followed the road south until he reached Brampton.

"How many Wizards live here?" He silently wondered.

He'd come to the decision that slow travelling wouldn't actually be helpful. Time for some forgery. For that he first needed coinage to copy.

Now he wasn't going to beg for money, he was going to help someone out.

As night fell, he wandered around town. His clothes were dirty and he needed some help so…

"You there, are you okay?"

Ah the kindness of strangers.

Joshua looked over "Somewhat. But I'm afraid I don't have a job or any money saved up anymore. I don't suppose you know something I could do to earn a bit of safety?"

The person he was speaking to looked like a regular person. A man likely around the same kind of age as Joshua himself was now.

The man was thoughtful for a moment before nodding "I could put in a good word for you with the local shop, how would that suit you."

Joshua shook his head slightly "I'm sorry, but I'm travelling. I only need safety for tonight so I can keep going in the morning."

It took a minute or so for the man to reply, he seemed to be thinking deeply.

Finally he looked up "How about this? I'll give you some money, run down to the local shop- over there." He pointed "And do some shopping for me. I have a list, but I didn't want to be out this late. When you come back, you can spend the night."

Joshua's eyes lit up and he nodded. The man handed over a small amount of money and the shopping list.

It would have taken a lot of trust, if Joshua had been lying- well, lying in a different way- he might have just ran off with this. That wasn't the goal though.

So with the man's address in hand too, Joshua did the man's shopping. There he actually saw today's date.

5th of September, 1971

That was quite early, earlier than the Harry Potter books started. At least based on what he remembered of them. It also meant that relative to his last world he'd travelled fifty-two years into the future.

Grabbing everything on the shopping list, he paid and got a few coins of change. As he was heading to the man's address, he turned the coins over in his hand to memorise how they were made.

He found the address and knocked and the man he'd met earlier opened the door with a smile. He was pleased that Joshua had done as asked instead of just running.

To give him a place to stay, the offered their attic space, passing blankets up the attic trapdoor to make sure he had soft bedding and would be warm through the night.

Once, Joshua had feared trusting those that offered him safety. But in his travels he'd found there were more good people than bad. Or at least it seemed that way. He'd been doing things like this since his journeys in the Pokemon world had begun and so far nothing had gone wrong with it.

He didn't really understand the reason that it happened, but he was glad nonetheless.

In the morning he departed with a wave to the man and his family and set off for the train station. He took a moment to alchemically create around £20 in coinage before checking the train schedule.

There seemed to be two types of trains passing through here. There were some going to Carlisle and some going to Newcastle.

…Wasn't Newcastle in Ireland? How did that work?

Looking at the train map it became more obvious, they meant Newcastle upon Tyne in the east of England.

Carlisle was only a little west of Brampton so there was no point in taking the train there. Not when he could walk.

From Newcastle upon Tyne there was apparently a train route that went all the way down to Plymouth. That would certainly help.

Joshua went to check on ticket prices.

"Two-hundred pounds!" he noted with a start as he heard the ticket seller's answer to his question.

The woman he had asked just shrugged "You're crossing all of England, of course it would be expensive."

Right, Joshua may have been willing to forge money, but not that much money. He'd been hoping it would have been fifty pounds at the most.

So, defeated by the British train network, Joshua sighed and used the forged money to buy some better food to eat as he continued to wander south.

"Maybe I could run into a wizarding village?" He remarked to himself "That could be good, maybe I could see someone use magic."

As he spoke, he felt a warmth from his pocket and fear gripped him.

"Oh no, no- I was joking come on!"

But no, his sparkblade was glowing as some sort of power was expended. Joshua sighed with annoyance.

So, his blade had given him something. It was a bit unclear about what exactly it gave him as no new wizard village was just popping into existence around him but the fact remains that something had changed.

"Hopefully nothing too annoying." Joshua thought to himself as he continued walking. He stuffed his sparkblade away again and kept going.

He stopped to have lunch and saw insects flitting around. Only as he looked closer they weren't insects. He called out his Pokemon in case something went wrong but he realised they were little humanoid figures with wings. Fairies, it seemed.

Dragonair sniffed at them curiously and they danced around her length. It was actually quite a good lunch after all.

After lunch, Joshua kept going as clouds started to roll in after an otherwise lovely morning. He returned all his Pokemon and looked for shelter.

As the rain started falling, Joshua made out a small town in the distance. He took off at a run as he got soaked by the sudden downpour.

Running into the town, he took cover under a random house's overhanging roof to try and recover. His clothes were soaked through. No one was outside but he still didn't want to risk an alchemical flash to dry himself off. Someone might still see him.

So it seems he'd just need to wait here for the storm to pass unless he was willing to start knocking on doors. He had done that before though…

Ah, he could look for an inn or a pub or something like that!

Covering his head, he ran from cover to cover until he saw a sign hanging outside a pub. He couldn't make out what the sign was meant to be but he could tell it was a pub at least. He headed in and was hit by a wall of heat.

There was a roaring fire to one side of the pub and there were people talking and laughing around the room. A lot of them stopped to look his way though.

"Well then." The landlord of the pub standing behind a bar called out "Get in around the fire, you look like a drowned rat newcomer. What's your name?"

"Joshua, sir." Joshua answered as he approached the fire.

As he answered, conversation started back up around the room as the Landlord brought over a cup of something alcoholic.

"Now then, what were you doing out in that storm?"

Joshua laughed softly as he was handed the drink "I'm a traveller and I was caught out there during my walk. I just so happened to see this town and rushed towards it."

"Ya saw the town?" The landlord noted "You mean you were that far away when the storm started?" He seemed shocked but noticed Joshua's shivering next to the fire and nodded "Well then, if you need somewhere to stay there are rooms upstairs. Do you have your wallet on you?"

Joshua nodded and pulled out some coins "Just loose change mostly."

The landlord took it with a nod regardless "It doesn't matter, just warm yourself up. You could help around here tonight to work off the rest of the room's cost."

As he turned to leave, Joshua called out "Where am I by the way, I couldn't read the sign on my way in."

The man laughed "Welcome to Little Hangleton. My pub's name is the Hanged Man."

Something about that tickled Joshua's memory, but he couldn't explain why.

Spoiler: Author Notes

This should have come out yesterday but my friends distracted me from it. Either way, here we are on the journey south. Joshua hasn't had the chance to read or watch Harry Potter in years due to his travel so naturally he doesn't recognise the name Little Hangleton. I assume some of you do though and can guess what at least part of next chapter will be.
Also, on the spells not working: yes they all have wand motions he doesn't know, but he also didn't pronounce the unlocking charm properly. He was just copying the movie pronunciation and they got it wrong too.

Feel free to comment if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

Joshua helped around the Hanged man for the rest of the evening and in return was given a plate of stew and a room to spend the night in.

The rain kept pouring down as he sat in the room's chair and stared out of the window, trying to remember what he knew from the books.

Like most people who grew up in the time and place he had, he'd read the Harry Potter books and watched (most of) the movies. Of course it had been over a decade since his last proper read-through and he'd spent a large chunk of that decade on adventures of his own.

That said…

"Little Hangleton." He mumbled to himself "The Hanged Man."

They meant something. He resolved to explore the small village tomorrow. He didn't really want to be doing any serious travelling with the weather as it was anyway.

He settled in to sleep and dreamed of rain.

Said rain hadn't gone away overnight. While it was only lightly drizzling now, the sky was still darkly overcast. Even so, Joshua thanked the pub's owner (And was offered an umbrella as long as he promised to bring it back before leaving the village).

The umbrella was small and bright green but it did the job of keeping the rain off his head. He asked about strange occurrences that had happened around the village. There hadn't been anything that recent though. Nothing that stood out to the locals at least.

That wasn't to say there wasn't gossip. Mostly it was about places other than their little village though. Apparently the murder rate was up across the country and the police didn't seem to know what was happening.

Joshua suspected something to be going on in the wizard side of the issue but with no easy way to learn about it, he simply kept exploring and eventually found his way to the village's cemetery.

The cemetery sat on one side of the village. There was a path to the side of it that led up into the nearby hills that were apparently some sort of private land.

Something about it all looked familiar so he began to walk through the graveyard slowly, the umbrella letting water slide down onto his shoulders as he examined graves. There were also above-ground mausoleums and statues of angels. Joshua predicted that some wealthy people would have to be buried here for so much extravagance to be on full display.

He headed to the most opulent area of the graveyard, hopefully whoever was buried there would help answer his lingering worry.

Above the plot of earth was a marble headstone, behind that a statue of an angel with a reaper's scythe- the angel of death. Skeletal hands and a grinning skull were further markers. Whoever had this carved was feeling fairly morose.

Joshua knelt down to read the headstone.

"Thomas Riddle, Mary Riddle and Tom Riddle Snr."

Ah.

Oh.

Of course, it should have been obvious. The memories all hit Joshua like a wave.

This would mean of course that there should be a Horcrux here, Joshua tried to recall exactly where Dumbledore found it in the books. The Riddle Mansion itself right? That's where it had been created at least.

Joshua stood up from the grave, but before he left he turned back to the headstone and the angel of death.

He tried to think of some words to say, he felt it should be made right somehow. However, he couldn't bring back the dead. Not really.

With a sigh, he turned from the graveyard. The path up the hill should lead to the Riddle estate. There probably wasn't anyone there right now from what Joshua could recall.

The path up to the estate was well-maintained at least. As he walked it, Joshua asked himself what he was actually planning to do when he found the Horcrux. Destroy it, most likely. That would probably be a good deed for the future. Take one of the Horcruxes off the table early, maybe it would even delay the death of Dumbledore in a few decades from now.

…No, probably not. There was still the trick with the Elder Wand that required his death. Even so, this should help in the future.

The Riddle House was a large manor. It might have been a great honour to own in the past but now it was simply in a state of disrepair. The grounds were overgrown and the windows were boarded up.

Joshua drew his shardblade to damage the door enough to enter. There didn't seem to be any traps on the door itself after doing that so he pushed his way inside.

The inside of the house was dark, dust and decay covered every surface as small puffs of grey blew up with each step Joshua took. He closed the door behind him and began to explore, trying to remember the details about where and how the ring was protected.

After an hour or two of searching though he gave up and sat down in an old armchair. Another puff of dust rose to greet him as he did before he steepled his fingers, trying to mentally map what he remembered of the ring.

First: What was it? The stone itself was a Deathly Hallow, passed down from wizard to wizard until Tom found it. Where did he find it?

…The Riddles had been muggles, so the Gaunt family then? They had a shack somewhere around here didn't they? They were locals at least.

So, Volde found it, stole it and then killed the Riddles to make it a Horcrux in this very house. Where did he hide it though?

Either here or… the Gaunt Shack. Damn. Joshua had made a mistake. It wasn't here at all.

With a sigh, he stood up from the dusty armchair and headed back towards the front door. He stopped before he reached the door though as he heard someone swearing.

"Those damn kids, those damn kids! They couldn't just be riding their bicycles around private property, no! They need to break in and… argh!"

Quietly, Joshua left a different way. He broke open a window's lock and slipped out into the late morning light. He ate a very soggy piece of alchemist's bread on the way down the hillside as he tried to figure out how to find the Gaunt shack without looking too shifty.

As the rain was finally letting up, he stopped by the Hanged Man to ask its owner while he returned the umbrella.

"Are there any places I should avoid while I wonder around here?" Joshua asked "I heard rumours about a shack or something like that I should avoid."

"Probably the old snake shack." The owner nodded "There's an old shack out on the edge of town that way-" he pointed the direction away from the Riddle manor "and it's constantly inhabited by snakes. There are Adder nests out there and we quite often get stories of hikers getting bitten. A mad old man used to live there but he doesn't anymore."

Perfect.

Joshua nodded to him "Thank you for all the hospitality, I'll follow your advice."

The man laughed as Joshua left after telling that lie. He was grateful, but he was going to immediately check on the Shack.

Eventually he came upon the Shack. The grass grew long around it and there was probably a reason to fear snakes here. Before heading into the Shack, Joshua would need a way to drive off the serpentine guards.

He clapped his hands and held out his hands to the grass. Nothing happened at first as the alchemical lightning danced across the brush.After a moment though, the grass began to wilt to either side, creating a wide path that Joshua could see a few snakes slithering along.

They were coming towards him.

The floor was wet enough though for his second part. Another clap and he touched the wet and soggy earth and in a flash; froze it. The snakes stopped in their tracks, they didn't like the cold.

Careful not to slip or leave himself open to the snakes, Joshua quickly moved between them to the shack itself.

Where was the ring now? He seemed to remember it had been buried.

He found it beneath some rotten floorboards, a golden box. Joshua didn't dare to touch the box though, fearing what sort of spells had been used to protect it. Instead he resorted to old-fashioned means of testing for traps.

With an alchemic flash he turned the rotten table into a 10-foot pole and poked at the box. It moved so it wasn't locked in place.

Okay, Horcrux protection. A trial and a guardian. A potion of despair and an army of zombies. A dragon and the ability to self-replicate and burn thieves.

The protection was the curse that was killing Dumbledore in the books. Were the snakes the guards? If they were then they were very easy guards to dispose of. Maybe this was like the diadem and part of the challenge was simply knowing enough to find the Shack?

Joshua tied his sparkblade to the end of the 10-foot pole and poked at the box to cut it slightly. It was his intention to break any spells upon the surface but he gave it a few goes, hoping at least one of them would work. He couldn't be sure of anything with how little he knew about magic now he was here, in this world.

Cautiously, he pulled the box up with his bare hands and set it on a chair. He took his sparkblade off the end and cut more precisely to open the lock of the box before opening it carefully.

There, carefully stored inside, was the ring.

A golden band that shimmered and a small stone- one of the most powerful magical artefacts that was being misused as part of another.

Making the 10-foot pole a little thinner and giving it a hook, he lifted the ring out of the box and dropped it on the floor.

He felt a longing in his chest. What could he do with the power of the stone?

…No, there was no one in this world who would want to speak to him.

Kneeling down, Joshua cut the golden ring with his sparkblade.

Blood splashed out from the golden metal as it dulled, seemingly turning from the bright gold to dull lead.

The Horcrux, the little bit of soul within, was killed.

Joshua carefully removed the stone from the ring. It still had value after all. He glanced at the golden box the ring had been stored in and wondered if it really was gold. A quick transmutation (Making the box smaller) was all he needed to confirm it.

With the spell now hopefully being removed in full, Joshua put the Resurrection Stone into the box before slipping it into his rip in reality.

With his job done, he set out for the exit of the shack. As he crossed the threshold though, he heard a voice scream out. Some sort of Alarm trap.

He clapped and kicked against the ground to make it launch him away from the shack.

Joshua ran from Little Hangleton. There'd be someone after him soon. They could teleport and he couldn't, so he'd need to be very careful in the days to come.

As he left though, the sun came out at last. Whatever shadows he felt were lifted from his spirit as he ran on.

South, ever further south until he reached London.

With him now was one of the Deathly Hallows, he'd need to figure out where to put this so that Harry would be able to find this in a few decades' time.

Maybe just give the box to Dumbledore? No, that seemed like a bad idea somehow. The old man likely wouldn't be able to resist the allure. Even without a Horcrux amplifying it, Dumbledore would want to use it.

Therefore… Aberforth. He'd need to get it to Aberforth.

After going south of course. He'd take the train north again somehow because he didn't want to make this entire journey twice.

Spoiler: Author Notes

Originally I was going to have a fight against Death Eaters in this part but I decided to save it until later. I was also going to have additional defences on the Gaunt Shack but I couldn't think of anything really creative. I guess if you want to say this was too easy, you could say "The snakes were charmed to resist magic and their bites were magically lethal." or something like that.

 

[boyboy180]

The wet leaves squelched as he jogged through nature. He couldn't risk going any faster else he'd probably slip over.

He kind of regretted all of that now, he'd made himself into a target by destroying the Horcrux. It was still a good act, something he had done to help people, but even so it would only drag him into some combat.

He needed to get a case that was bigger on the inside and then drop off the Hallow ASAP.

Even as he thought about that though, he glanced up into the sky and almost jumped. Behind him a ways away were two large dark shapes in the sky. They were still quite far away currently but Joshua had a good guess at what they were.

Death Eaters, here for him.

He dashed into tree cover as he thought about his pursuers, they weren't flying under their own power (If he remembered correctly that required incredibly powerful magic). So they were riding brooms. Maybe he could steal one? That would at least make travel to London easier.

Of course, he didn't know how to fly a broomstick so that was just likely to get him thrown to his death from hundreds of meters in the air.

Anyway, there were probably more Death Eaters after him, there was probably a search radius or something. How had they tracked him though? Maybe there was some spell in the Shack that allowed them to track whoever set off the alarm? That sounded believable but it also made everything much harder for him from now on.

Without a way to lose them, he was done for in the long term.

He heard feet crunch nearby as he thought. The wizards had landed.

"Why did he have to call on us today?" A male voice asked in an annoyed tone.

His partner, a woman scolded him "Now don't start up about that, our master didn't know we had plans. We'll get this job done quickly and head home."

Joshua hid himself in deeper between the trees. He couldn't use alchemy without showing off where he was, so he just had to creep around and hope he wasn't noticed.

"What's even the point of this though? What was that old shack?" The man asked "It didn't look important."

His partner shook her head "It's none of our business, if he was protecting that place then it's our duty to catch that bloody intruder."

The man sighed and Joshua heard him mutter something like "Appare Vestigium."

Joshua couldn't remember if he'd heard about that spell before, at least not in the media he'd consumed. Regardless, a mist of golden sparkles shot through the woods. He only saw the end of it as it was falling off but it gave him a rough idea of where the man was at least.

"Did he have to go into the forest?" The man sighed.

The woman tutted "Well it is natural, they are trying to get away with their crimes."

Joshua heard the footsteps as they approached and he glanced down at the floor again, his eyes going wide.

The golden dust hadn't vanished, it had settled into the image of footsteps. His footsteps. Some of the spell had been blocked by the tree line so they didn't know exactly where he was but one more casting would probably reveal him.

He needed to get out of here, what did he have on hand? The sparkblade, his useless wand, a bottle of water the pub's owner had given him, the clothes on his back and the every flavour beans in his pocket.

He could try to do some alchemy with those magic beans but now was not the time for experimenting. Now was the time to get out of here.

The water bottle then. He just needed them to get a bit closer.

"Anyway, what do you think about… you know what?" The woman asked.

The man sighed "After the war, when it's finally over. Doing it before seems…"

"But Lee's had a kid."

"Lee is an idiot. Don't you remember what happened?"

"He's alive, as is his son."

"His pet isn't."

There, they were close enough. As the woman sighed, she raised her wand to cast the tracking spell again. Joshua could see her shadow on the ground.

Joshua clapped his hands around the bottle, converting the water within to steam while also throwing the bottle beside him and running.

"There he-"

And then the steam exploded out of the bottle. The pressure had been too much for the lid and the cold steam filled the area and produced a smokescreen.

"Stupify!" Red sparks shot through the steam, trying to catch him out. Joshua slid low and kept running.

The wizard and witch burst through the steam, now soaking wet as the water (Which was still at room temperature) returned to the liquid form as they ran through it.

They continued to throw stunning spells, spells that Joshua could make use of in the future. He saw the spells working and understood the motions and the pronunciations now.

Well later, once he practised them a bit.

He kept dodging and weaving, ducking behind trees as stunners hit where he was a moment before. He had combat reflexes from war but that was of limited effectiveness unless he could fly.

Ah, here was his way out. He clapped and put his hands to the floor, imagining rings and rings of circles within one another and formed out of trees and earth. The maze sprung up around them all and the woman cursed. Literally.

"Bombarda!"

An explosion rumbled from nearby as Joshua jogged over to a wall and deformed it around himself to pass through. Each wall required a clap and as he ran he heard more explosions behind him.

Was that spell actually a curse? Joshua seemed to remember it was called the "Blasting curse" but he wasn't sure where the lines were drawn. He hadn't seen the wand movement though so he couldn't replicate it.

At this rate he wouldn't escape. Besides, they could just keep following his footsteps. He needed to double back to try and get their broomsticks, it was the only way- even if it was likely to cause his death via falling.

To do that though he'd need to get past the Death Eaters.They were likely already almost here too so he'd need to be careful. He heard them both blowing the maze apart after him but they likely didn't know his precise location right now.

He headed around the side of the maze and made his way back into it behind where the pair were blasting away. As he tried to sneak up on the woman though, she spun.

"Expulso!" She jabbed her wand and a wave of blue force threw Joshua back against the wall he had just moved through.

"He's over here!" Joshua heard through a foggy head. He shook himself and dodged as the woman pointed her wand again. With a clap he dived through a wall again and he heard a loud sigh from the woman.

"Hubby? He can use wandless magic to move through the walls."

Okay, the woman was good. Time to try on the man.

Also, were they married? He pondered that question as he tried to manoeuvre around. The two of them had gone back to blasting the walls apart to limit his escape options. Actually… hmm. That might work.

With another clap he sunk into the ground, burying himself alive. He'd pulled the ground up around him though so he should have a good amount of air in here to breathe.

He was however plunged into total darkness. He heard footsteps from above him and felt rumblings in the earth.

Joshua reinforced the walls and ceiling of his hiding place and tried to stay quite while breathing shallowly.

When the explosions stop, he sighed in relief for a moment. It was too soon though.

The ceiling exploded inwards and he saw both of the death eaters above him. Even as he dived for the walls, the woman flicked out her wand and yanked him out of the hole forcefully. He landed on the ground surrounded by his ruined maze.

"Are you even a wizard?" The witch asked with some annoyance in her voice "Or just a lucky mudblood who never went to school?"

Joshua spat and tried to dodge away as the woman threw another spell his way that bound his arms in manacles.

"Now that we have you, you'll be answering our questions." The man noted. Joshua blinked and realised they hadn't thrown an obviously fatal spell the entire battle, they'd only used that explosion spell to clear away the walls.

The woman nodded and pointed her wand "Now then, for what reason did you enter that shack?"

Joshua looked around "What shack?" He needed to play dumb while looking for a way out.

The woman sighed and then flicked her wand.

"Crucio."

Now, what is pain? The body has nerves specifically set aside for high priority messages, things like "This is on fire" or "I've been stabbed in the hand."

Now, those signals travel up to the brain. The brain can learn to ignore certain signals if they're fired too often (So if something is causing pain and the pain slowly fades while you're still hurt, it might be partially because the brain has gotten used to that source of pain).

The Cruciatus Curse was not like that sort of pain.

It set alight every single pain receptor in the entire body at once. Joshua screamed as his body twisted in upon itself at the shocks running throughout his body. The woman let him roll around in agony, unable to even think clearly. He was still able to think though.

The woman stopped the pain and asked again, but Joshua wouldn't answer so she simply cursed again. As Joshua rolled about in pain, he made sure that when the agony stopped, he was on his knees looking away from her. In that moment of clarity he slipped his sparkblade out and cut the chain of the handcuffs that had been spelled around his wrists. Then he clapped and recreated the maze.

"Oh for-" The woman cursed, not literally this time, and the husband and wife began blasting the walls away.

He needed a way out.

As he ran, his sparkblade glowed and light shone from it onto a nearby branch. It was a fallen branch as long as he was tall. Joshua didn't know what was special about the branch but he grabbed it and continued to run.

When he was out of the maze, he glanced back at the stick in surprise. It had become a broomstick.

Joshua really didn't know how that had happened (Other than "Sparkblade nonsense") but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He mounted the broom, the knowledge of how it worked just coming to him.

With an exertion of will, he lifted off into the sky. They'd never be able to follow his tracks now!

He gave a cheer of delight as he shot through the sky. The death eaters were nowhere in sight, they'd been left in his dust.

And now he could make his way to London quickly and easily. It wouldn't help him find the alley but there'd be no more problems in muggle transportation.

In fact he was shooting through the sky so fast he could probably be in London by sundown! This broom really was amazing.

Flying transport really would be useful in this and future worlds. As he flew he began to figure out how the spells thrown his way worked. It gave him something he could actually do with his wand other than throw randomly coloured sparks.

Four spells, Stupify, Expulso, that spell that made handcuffs and the Cruciatus Curse.

That last one… would he be willing to use it?

He snorted at the question. Obviously. Not that he would look for opportunities to use it but he didn't need to cast out a tool because it was deadly. He knew plenty of lethal spells from final fantasy six, even the Death spell and that might as well be the killing curse. Not that he could use it in this world though.

As he flew on, he realised something. His blade had given him a lightning-fast broom and the skills to pilot it instead of just giving him the case he wanted. Now in that situation it made sense, it gave him what he needed to survive. The fact remains though that it was probably entirely capable of making an expanded case and it just wasn't.

Joshua sighed, the wind drying out his mouth. He had spare water inside his space pocket so he could access it when he landed.

Spoiler: Author Notes

Those two lovely death eaters were Mr and Mrs Snyde. If you've never heard of them, neither had I until I decided to put them in this story. They are semi-canon (Their daughter shows up in Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery) but that's all I know. I did have some fun writing this chapter though, Joshua got a lot of useful things this time. Also: Second chapter in two days. Could I do a third? Maybe. Maybe not.

Feel free to comment if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

Joshua's new broom was fast, very fast. There was some sort of instinctive part of his brain that even told him exactly how fast he was going. One hundred and fifty miles per hour, or somewhere around two hundred and forty kilometres per hour.

The ground sped away below him, he was moving as the crew flew, looking out for the great metropolitan area that would tell him he'd reached London. Where segmented fields would give way to collections of houses.

Hopefully if anyone was looking up, they'd just think of him as a very fast bird.

Bursting through clouds he came out soaked as the water condensated on his clothes. It was still better than travelling around the clouds though as it made him all the harder to spot.

The wind quickly chilled him through his wet clothes though and he started to reconsider the previous thought.

It took an hour or two to reach London, he had a few false stops when he mistook Birmingham for London but he quickly moved on again when he realised he'd made a mistake.

Finally there stretched out before him the great city. Well, the City of London was probably in there somewhere but the area called Greater London was below him now. It just raised the question of how he'd land without attracting attention.

If he was to come down on a street, he'd definitely be noticed. Roofs were probably much the same. The problem was the sun was still up, though that wouldn't be true much longer.

He wanted to land before the sun set completely though, exploring London for the Leaky Cauldron by night would be a nightmare.

He passed over something that looked like a park thoughtfully. That might work. The one he was looking at though was too far from the center of London to be worth a landing though. He'd have to hope no one was taking a walk near sundown though.

Joshua flew on to look for the Thames. He'd want a park near its banks as that would help him navigate after landing.

He found a large looking park and decided it worked well enough so he moved down to land there. There looked to be plenty of tree cover so it shouldn't be easy to see him coming.

Angling the broom down, he headed down, he slowed and pulled up as he grew near the ground and landed softly on an empty path in the park. Or at least it had looked empty.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Looking up, Joshua blinked in surprise. A man was standing there wearing a set of binoculars around his neck on a lanyard. He was dressed in a bright green turtleneck shirt and tight black trousers.

…The hell?

The man repeated his question "You daft man, what are you doing?"

Thinking fast, Joshua shrugged "Practising a flying trick, I'm a magician after all."

"A magician?" The man asked curiously "What's your stage name?"

"Jerony the… marvel." It took a fraction of a second for Joshua to think of that and it seemed like the man had noticed. Even so, the man had seen him fall out of the air on a broomstick. Joshua had dismounted his broom (In a way that would lead the man to think he was holding it up or something like that)

"Well okay Jerony." The man raised an eyebrow "Could you show me some other tricks?"

…"Naturally."

Joshua sighed and walked to a large tree. With a little bit of slight of hand he opened his pocket space behind the tree out of the man's point of view and held up the broom.

"Now you see it?" with a quick push, he pushed it into the pocket space and quickly sealed it up "Now you don't."

The man gawped and quickly ran around to see but indeed the broom had vanished. He sighed and shook his head.

"Well I never, you didn't even use a wand."

…What?

Playing up the act, Joshua shrugged "Magic tricks are all the more impressive when done like this."

"That isn't what I meant."

The man looked carefully at Joshua before nodding "Well, 'Jerony the marvel' where are you going next?"

Joshua shrugged "Around, I'm looking for somewhere to spend the night actually so I can go hunting for a venue in the morning."

The man sighed "My misses and I would be happy to put you up at ours for the night as long as you helped out. I'm Gregory Knocker."

Knocker? Quite a name but that didn't prove you weren't a muggle. Though it did suggest it. It was like almost everyone in the world had a silly or at least a strange surname.

Joshua sighed and accepted. Searching in the morning would be much better than searching at this time of night.

With Joshua's promise to help, Gregory led him to his home. Apparently he'd been out birdwatching, that explained the binoculars at least.

Their house was a small thing, a half-house. What's the proper term for it again? A duplex? The Knocker's household was on the left side. It was a house like any other on the street. As Mr Knocker entered and called out to his wife, he and Joshua navigated through the tight corridor.

Mrs Knocker called out in greeting and was surprised to see a guest.

"You didn't say you had a guest honey?"

"Ah." The man nodded "I should have called ahead. This is Mr Jerony-"

Joshua shook his head "Just a stage name, my real name is Joshua." With a nod he looked to Mrs Knocker "Your husband invited me over if I was willing to help around the house."

"Ah yes!" the wife clapped "That will be really helpful. There was some furniture that needed moving."

"Before that though, when is supper likely to be?" Mr Knocker asked. His wife smiled "Not too long, I'll keep working on it while you get started on the hard work."

Mr Knocker laughed as he said something about getting changed for work and Joshua glanced at Mrs Knocker.

He didn't really know how to ask if this was normal for them, if she did all the cooking and such. But it seemed that her husband at least did all of the heavy lifting around home.

Was that progressive? No idea. It was the 70s and Joshua was too young to have experienced those himself.

Going to help Gregory with the lifting, it seemed they needed to move some things from the attic into a 'currently' spare room.

"What do you mean currently?" Joshua asked and Gregory smiled "Our daughter is currently at a very prodigious boarding school in scotland." He raised an eyebrow "I think you may have heard about it?"

…

Was he…? Were these the parents of a muggleborn student? Were they trying to figure out if he was a wizard?

Or was he overthinking it and these were perfectly normal parents?

"Oh?" Joshua commented in an off-hand way "Where is it? Hogsmeade?"

The father shrugged "I don't remember anywhere called that, just the name of the school. She was headhunted because of how special she was."

…Were they or were they not? It was so hard to tell.

Carefully they took down boxes from the small attic space and moved them along the corridor into the daughter's room. Finally when they were done, the two men stood awkwardly together in the girl's bedroom.

Joshua could tell that Gregory wanted to ask something but was resisting, much like he himself was.

The man cursed softly and asked in a whisper "You said you were a magician before. Are you also a wizard perchance?"

A question just vague enough to not arouse suspicion. Joshua glanced to the side.

"Is your daughter going to a school with 'Hog' in its name?"

The man sighed relieved and his voice returned to a normal volume "Yes, Hogwarts."

Oh thank god the tension had been killing Joshua.

Over supper he discussed a little of the wizarding world with the couple. Gregory had been the one to take his daughter to Diagon Alley and he'd seen stores with Broomsticks. That had been his first clue when he'd seen Joshua.

Joshua asked about that and how he could find Diagon Alley and the Leaky Cauldron. The Knockers drew up a map for him that he'd be able to follow in the morning.
He slept peacefully on their sofa and woke up with a crick in his back. He stretched and had breakfast with the lovely couple and waved farewell to them as he set off for the leaky cauldron.

The walk was a relatively short but as Joshua walked, he reminisced. He'd found out from Gregory that the park he'd landed in was Hyde park. It just kept coming up for him. This was now the third time. In his home world, in the war torn world of alchemy and magic and now in the wizarding world.

Maybe there was something special about it? There was no way to be sure though.

Finding the leaky cauldron he came in and greeted the barman and told him that he hadn't come in before and he needed to know how to open the wall.

"From the rubbish bin, three up and two across."

Nodding, he headed into the alley and found the wall in question.

With some trepidation, he tapped on the wall in the right spot and the wall peeled away. For the first time he was entering the wizarding world properly. This was a place without muggles.

The fact that his clothes were so ordinary kind of made him stand out as he began heading around the streets. Though not for long, most wizards would glance his way and then avert their eyes.

As he walked the streets though, he acknowledged a point he'd thought about previously. He didn't have any money with which to buy an expanded case.

He'd have to think about what to do when he knew how much money he'd need.

Loud calls came from around the street, hawkers were calling out their wares from small carts that moved around by magic and large signs announced various shops, none of which Joshua could pay for.

Looking around, Joshua actually got a bit of free equipment. Apparently a broom shop had been needing to get rid of some surplus so they actually just took a handful of muggle change that Joshua had. From that he got a maintenance kit for his broom. After ducking out of sight he dumped that into his dimensional pocket.

Continuing on, he found a shop that loudly announced itself to be "The junk shop." Inside was a collection of broken things. This was the best bet for finding something like the case he wanted on the cheap.

And he did. But it wasn't cheap enough.

There was a rack of "High-value junk." There were a few nicknacks there including what claimed to be a "Slightly damaged time turner, doesn't work but a clever buyer might be able to repair." But the true treasure of this junk shop was a large suitcase. Apparently it had been the subject of a lot of expansion charms over the years and no one knew how safe it was.

…Okay, that part did worry Joshua but he hoped he'd be able to figure out what was wrong with it. If worst came to worst, his dagger would reinforce it or something to keep it working.

Hopefully, at least.

Of course though, he couldn't afford it. That left him with two real options: Work to get enough money to buy it (Which would likely take a while) or steal it.

Now, the morality of stealing was something he had to think about. On a grand metaversal scale, there were probably thousands of worlds just like this one. Copies of the harry potter universe. He suspected there to be at least one more at the least even if the multiverse didn't work like that.

His reasoning: The Harry Potter books and jumper metaphysics. He didn't fully get it but from what he interpreted from what Jake had said, there had to be many hundreds of worlds out there and at least a few of them would be Harry Potter at the time of the books. Since this was not that, then this world was just another world.

So if there were multiple versions of this world, stealing from any one store in any one world isn't a very big crime, at least speaking on the scale of the multiverse.

But no. He wasn't really part of the whole multiverse. He was part of this world and stealing from this store would be just as bad as it always was.

If he was going to steal from this shop, he needed to be absolutely sure…

Heading back to the Leaky Cauldron, he helped out the owner and was allowed to stay the night in recompense. In his room he looked at his Sparkblade.

"Go on then, give me a travelling case of my own." Joshua asked the blade "Or the money to buy the case I guess, but wouldn't that use up whatever energy it is that you're using. Just giving me a case would be better."

But the sparkblade didn't respond in any way.

Joshua sighed. Well, robbery it was. Later though, for now he had to sleep.

Spoiler: Author Notes

The Knockers aren't canon (At least I didn't base them off anyone). It was just a chance that Joshua ran into them though, right? Well… sort of. On the other side of this whole mess, an expanded case has been located. In the next chapter: A heist gone wrong.

Feel free to comment if you want.